


Deja Vu

by UnderZeWeather



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Lance, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mixed feelings, One sided Allurance, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Time travel is hard, everyone is confused
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:15:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 24
Words: 65,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29036829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnderZeWeather/pseuds/UnderZeWeather
Summary: Lance has many regrets in his life. These regrets manifest on Allura day. The one day where the Paladin's and Coran get together to catch up and talk about old times. Even 20 years later Lance still has trouble dealing with his emotions towards the dead Princess, heck, he has trouble dealing with everything he did as part of Voltron. If there was some way to go back and change the past he would. But should he?Kind of a time travel fix it fic, but not really?
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 1210
Kudos: 242





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Here's another fic! Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

It was that time of the year again on new Altea. That time when the Paladins would get together under the statue of Allura and catch up. Over the past few years it had grown into more of a celebration with fireworks and stalls that sold food and Allura themed trinkets. Lance was pretty sure that in maybe a few hundred years Allura might become some kind of goddess or religious figure.

Lance was standing on a balcony at some fancy Altean restaurant that Coran had booked for them. He was one of the first to arrive and was just standing around drinking while Coran was talking to some of the staff.

It was the 20 year anniversary and Lance was… He felt melancholy about the whole ordeal. He used to feel a mixture of happiness and depression about that day, but now he felt indifferent. He used to think about ways he could have changed things. How he could have prevented Allura’s death, and all the little things inbetween. But he couldn’t change that now.

Hunk and Pidge arrived together. Hunk had become a rather famous 5 borgak chef. Lance still had no idea what a borgak was, but he assumed it was really good. He was happy with his life and was officially married to his long term girlfriend, Shay. They had a traditional Balmeran wedding and everything about five years ago. It was beautiful. Even Rax, Shay’s brother, finally relented a little and cracked a smile.

Pidge had become a robotics engineer that was currently living on Olkarion in a joint program with the Olkari. It was all very secretive and hushed up, but Pidge seemed very positive about what was happening. 

“Hey Lance.” Said Hunk. “Man, it feels like forever since we’ve seen you.”

Lance chuckled and grinned at him. “Yeah man. Been a while since I’ve seen you too.”

“Are you getting grey hair?” Asked Pidge in a playful manner.

Lance pouted and ran his fingers through the wispy little streaks of silver hair that started to grow in over the last year. “Is it that noticeable?”

“Nah, looks good on you.” Said Pidge. She gestured to the bar where Coran was now talking to the bartender. “I’m gonna get a drink. I’ll get you one too Hunk, want a refill Lance?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“Thanks Pidge.” Said Hunk.

As she walked away Shiro entered the room. Despite his age Shiro still looked as good as ever. He needed to wear glasses all the time now, but he rocked that look. His husband, Curtis, seemed to like it. At least that’s what Shiro had said. Shiro still worked for the Garrison, but from behind a desk these days. He was happy, and after everything that they had gone through, he deserved it.

Hunk grinned and waved at him. “Hey Shiro! Glad you could make it. Didn’t you say you’d be coming here with Keith?”

Shiro shrugged. “Keith said he was probably going to be a little late today. But he will be here.”

Hunk and Shiro talked a little bit more as Lance thought about Keith. He was right when he said that Keith was the future. He had turned the Blade of Mamora into an intergalactic humanitarian organization. The Blade had become so recognized and well received that people hardly remembered that the blade used to be a resistance group that went against the Galra empire.

The doors suddenly swung open and a slightly flustered looking Keith walked in. He wore his hair similar to the way Kolivan used to; long, braided and wrapped around his neck like a loose scarf. He had aged like a fine wine and didn’t look a day over 25. Possibly due to his damn Galra genes. He was going to outlive them all at this rate.

“Am I late?” He asked.

“Right on time.” Said Shiro. “But what kept you?”

Keith shrugged. “I was on Keplar-7. There was an asteroid cluster crossing my path so I thought I might not make it in time.”

“Man, that sucks.” Said Hunk.

The group quickly settled down for dinner after that and caught up. Coran happily talked about how New Altea was functioning as a democratic planet rather than a monarchy. There were still some hiccups with parlements and some talk about how often to hold elections, but they were working things out. Coran had been elected as the president of New Altea at the moment, which was nice.

Everyone happily talked about their lives while Lance just picked at his food. His melancholy was once again slowly giving way to depression. All the things that he could have said. All the promises he made that he broke. Hindsight was 20/20. There were so many things he wanted to say and do but… He couldn’t turn back time.

Dinner these days was becoming shorter and shorter. Mostly because everyone had places they needed to be. But not Lance. Lance owned his own farm. He had farm hands that could run the farm for a day or two without him. 

Everyone ended up turning in pretty early, but Lance stayed up to see the festivities for Allura day. Lance kind of blended into the crowds as he himself had Altean marks on his face. A parting gift and an unintentional reminder of his failures by Allura. Some Altean’s would have to do a double take when they looked at him. It was kind of embarrassing.

He eventually made it to a fountain that was very much the Blue lion. All over New Altea there were monuments to Voltron and the Lions. He felt a sense of sadness and longing when he saw any of the lions. Blue had been his lion, then Allura’s. He wondered if Keith felt the same way when he saw Red?

Around the base of the fountain there were a few steps where Altean’s had lit candles and left them. Little blue flames danced from the wick. It was similar around all the other lion fountains with their own corresponding colours. At the official Voltron statue the flames were multicoloured and flickered between all five colours.

Lance bought his own candle, lit it, and placed it by Blue’s fountain. Fuck he missed her. He missed her so much. He also missed Red, so he went to find her fountain and light a candle for her too.

As he walked he watched all the happy people just smiling and laughing. Today was a day of celebration after all. It was the day the war ended and New Altea was born. A day or remembrance and joy. Lance still couldn’t crack a smile. He lit a candle for Red and started to walk back to his own hotel room.

As he did the fireworks display started. Lance didn’t even bother to look up. Everyone else seemed to pause as they looked up at the fireworks and let out many ooooos and aaaahs. Lance just didn’t care. He was apathetic to it.

“You there, sir!” Called a voice. Lance looked over at a woman standing by a stall. She wasn’t an Altean. She had an odd figure with green skin and three orange eyes. She had a nose like an elephant and three fingers on each hand. “Yes, you sir, come here sir.”

Lance frowned but walked over to her anyway. “Yes?”

“You seem misplaced.” She said. “Out of touch, like something is wrong. Perhaps I can be of service? I am Madam Whipash. Seer of the future. Interpreter of dreams. Reader of fortunes.”

“So you’re a fortune teller?” Asked Lance.

Madam Whipash nodded. “Yes. You seem lost. For the price of one gak I can help you find your path?”

Lance thought for a moment. He didn’t really believe in fortune telling, but what harm was there in seeing what some alien thought about him? “Sure.”

“Wonderful.” Madam Whipash ushered him into the back of her stall that was blocked off by a heavy tarp. She sat on an ornate chair while Lance sat on a stool. She took out a deck of cards and started to shuffle them. “Now, before I tell you your future, shall we look into the past to see what kind of man you are?”

Lance shrugged. He was up for some alien tarot card readings. “Sure.”

She smiled and placed down the first card. “Ah, the bisected hero. You were the Blue Paladin of Voltron, yes? Then you became the Red Paladin? You went through many hardships during the war.”

“Well, it’s not hard to know that about me.” Said Lance. “Not really much of a fortune.”

The alien made a strange whistling noise with their trunk nose, which Lance interpreted as a laugh. “Very true. Now let’s continue.” She flipped over another card. “The eight of arrows, upside down… You are an insecure man. You struggled to find your place on your team and continuously tried to prove yourself, but you faced many hardships.”

Lance frowned a little. She kind of hit the nail on the head with that one. But what could anyone expect when he didn’t know what his place on the team was? He was just the goofball after all. He could almost laugh at how childish he was back then. If he could go back in time and slap his younger self he would.

“Now for the next card…” She flipped over the next card. “The phantom masks… You put on a brave face and put on an air of arrogance to protect yourself and others from your true feelings. You were always thinking of everyone else because you tried to put everyone else above yourself. This caused you to constantly hide your own pain and suffering. Even now you wear those masks.”

“So, your conclusion is that I am a soldier with PTSD?” Asked Lance. “Is that it?”

Madam Whipash made that weird noise with her trunk again. “If you want to put it that bluntly, then yes. Anyway now that I have an idea of who you were, I think it’s time to look into the future now, don’t you?” She quickly shuffled the cards and laid down the first card. “The general. You are clear in your decisions. You’re tactical and when you make a plan you stick to it. You have full confidence in yourself and your team.”

“Um, alright?” It was kind of an odd way to put it, but he could see himself technically being the general of his team of farmhands.

She laid out the second card. “The souls card upside down… Oh, that’s a very good card. It means you will rekindle an old flame that you once thought abandoned and burnt out. Someone you once thought gone and out of your grasp shall return to you.”

“Okay…” Lance knew that was a lie. The only one he wanted to see again was Allura. She was everything he ever wanted, but he could only see her in his dreams. He would never get a second chance with her.

“Now, let’s see what the last card says…'' Madam Whipash laid out the last card, and looked extremely confused. “Rebirth… I thought I took this card out?”

“What does it mean?” Asked Lance curiously.

She shook her head. “Well it can mean many things. It can mean starting a new life, getting a second chance, and even reincarnation. Though in this case I do believe it means second chance… But it does seem kind of vague… Um…” She stood up and walked over to a box. She opened it and took out a bottle of purple liquid. “Anyway, I believe that your future holds nothing but good things for you as long as you stay strong in your convictions. The things you believed were once out of your reach will no longer be unobtainable.” She poured the purple liquid into two cups and offered one to Lance.

“Oh, no thanks.”

“I insist.” Said Madam Whipash. “It is tradition to drink the thaumaturgy after a reading and on days of celebration. Today is extra special for today is both. Cheers.”

“Well, if you insist…” Lance drank the thaumaturgy. It tasted a little like a mix between strawberries, bubblegum, and soap.

He must have pulled a face because Madam Whipash chuckled. “It takes some getting used to.”

“Yeah, it does…” Lance handed her a gak for the fortune and stood up. “Thanks for the reading and the um, thaumaturgy?”

Madam Whipash just nodded and gestured for him to leave. “It was a pleasure. Until next time. If there is a next time. Enjoy the rest of Allura day.”

“I will…” Lance left the stall and started to walk back to his hotel. Maybe Hunk would still be awake? Then again he was probably talking to Shay right now. Pidge would definitely be awake. They never seemed to sleep. But they would be doing something and wouldn’t want to be disturbed. 

This sudden weight grew in his chest. It had been creeping up on him for years, but on this day he really noticed it. There was a wall slowly starting to build up between them. Ever since Voltron had ended they had drifted apart. It was a natural thing of course, but that didn’t mean it hurt any less.

When he got to the lobby of the hotel he was a little surprised to see Keith was there. He was walking around the lobby with his communicator out. Probably talking to Acxa or some other member of the Blade.

Lance’s chest just felt so much heavier when he saw Keith. He had tried to outdo the other man so much when they were younger, but that rivalry was stupid and one sided. He could see that now. Hindsight and all that. He wished that they had become closer friends when they had started Voltron. They could have done so much more if they had just put their pride aside for a few seconds.

Keith noticed Lance and ended his call. “Hey Lance. Need something?”

“Not really. I was just going to go back to my room.” He said. “What about you?”

Keith shrugged. “Just making some business calls… Are you going grey?”

Lance pouted and crossed his arms. “Yeah, yeah. Just keep reminding me of my age. Not all of us can be half Galra and have our aging slowed down to a crawl.”

Keith chuckled a little and that, though he had a sad look in his eyes. “Yeah, very true… Damn, if I don’t start getting older already it’s just going to be me and Coran on Allura day…”

“Oh, yeah I guess you’re right…” Lance hadn’t really thought of that. If Keith really didn’t age like a normal human he was going to outlive them all… At least he still had his Galra family he could rely on. That was probably one of the best things to come out of the war. Keith found his family. “Anyway, you enjoying Allura day?”

“As much as the next person.” He said. “But are you? I know I ask this every year but…”

“I’m fine Keith.” Said Lance. “It’s been 20 years. Allura is still dead. I’m still here. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

‘I know… So um, did you think about what I proposed last year?” Asked Keith. He almost sounded hopeful. Last year Keith had asked Lance to join the Blade. Lance wasn’t sure how effective he would have been for the humanitarian group, so he told Keith he would think about it. 

“Yeah, I thought about it.” Said Lance. “I um… I’m going to stay on earth. I have my own farm that I’m running and everything. Thanks for the offer though. I really appreciate it.”

“Oh… Um… Well if you ever change your mind…” Muttered Keith. He sighed a little and readjusted his braid slightly. “Look, I’m really worried about you. Every time I see you you’re either depressed or apathetic. You’re not the same as you used to be and I… I honestly miss who you used to be. Maybe you’ll find yourself again if you get off the planet for a bit?”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Wow Keith, it’s almost like going through a war and literally watching the woman I loved sacrifice herself left me with some mental trauma. So sorry that I’m not as strong as you are.”

Keith seemed to flinch a little at that statement. “That’s not what I meant…”

Lance shook his head. “It’s fine Keith… I know I’m not the same as I used to be. I’ve become more introverted. I have that thousand yard stare. I think about Allura all the time. I think about all the regrets and what could have been if I had just done something different… But I didn’t. Hell, I could have warned everyone about Shiro being a clone if I had just realized what he was trying to tell me when I had that weird link with the black lion. But I didn’t. We don’t get to do things over Keith.”

“... I know.” Said Keith quietly. “But you can’t carry the burden of the whole team on your shoulders. It’s been 20 years. You can let the past go. No one would blame you.”

“I know.”

“... So, are you seeing anyone?” Asked Keith.

Lance rolled his eyes. “Why? If I’m not seeing someone does that mean I still haven’t let go of the past?”

“I’m not trying to psychoanalyze you.” Said Keith. “You hardly talked during dinner and you always vanish after dinner. I never get to talk to you about anything.”

“Then call me.” Snapped Lance. “Did you lose my number or something? Is it really that hard to call me?” There was a beat of silence before Lance sighed and walked to the elevators. “Yeah, thought so… See you next year Keith.”

He left Keith standing there in the lobby as he went to his room. When he got there, Lance kicked off his shoes and collapsed onto the bed. He felt like shit. 20 years had passed and he was 39. His life was so mundane and all the life had been drained out of him. Everyone had told him that he needed to let everything go and move on, but he couldn’t. He was weighed down by too many regrets.

He fell into an uneasy sleep. The weight of his poor life decisions still heavy in his chest. He felt like he was sinking deeper and deeper. If only he could go back and correct his mistakes. There had to be something he could do. Anything he could do. He had to change things. He just had to.


	2. Take two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is this? A double upload on the same fic? Is this real? Yes. Yes it is. So this loosely follows the events of season one to start with but will eventually derail into something else. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Lance suddenly jolted up with a gasp. He was… Outside? Which was kind of weird. He was pretty sure he was sober and hadn’t drunk anything that alcoholic during Allura day… But something was a little weird. It was a bit colder than before and he tugged his jacket closer. His green army jacket that he had grown out of ages ago.

He quickly looked around and spotted Pidge sitting in front of her equipment with Hunk next to her. Just like back then… Hell, they looked younger too. Lance frowned and touched his face. He couldn’t tell if he still had his Altaen marks. He got up and walked over to Pidge’s laptop. He could see his reflection in the laptop screen. He was young again.

Lance was very shocked, but at the same time he wasn't. This had to be some kind of dream. It wouldn’t have been the first time he had dreams like this. Felt a little different than usual, since he mostly dreamed of Allura.

“So, find anything yet?” Asked Lance.

Pidge waved him off. “Hush you. I’m still trying to see if I can hear anything more about this Voltron thing.”

“Bet it’s a giant robot made of lions.” Said Lance in a joking manner.

Pidge rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s ridiculous.”

Hunk chuckled a little. “That would be pretty cool though. Would the lions detach or something? Can the lions fly.”

Lance grinned. “Yeah, with rockets and junk.”

“Will you two keep it down?” Asked Pidge. “I’m still listening for something usef-” Her sentence was cut short when the trio saw something that looked like a shooting star crash into earth.

Lance froze as he watched the vessel crash to earth. This dream seemed a little too real to him now. He hadn’t really had dreams that were a beat by beat of how they first met Blue. He could feel that something was very, very wrong about all this.

“What was that?” Asked Hunk.

“Shiro…” Whispered Lance. He quickly looked between Hunk and Pidge before taking off towards the crash. 

When they got to the crash they saw that officers from the Garrison were in the middle of quarantining Shiro. Pidge gasped in shock. “That’s Shiro!”

“Didn’t he vanish on the Kerberos mission?” Asked Hunk.

“He has to know what happened.” Said Pidge. “There were other people with him. What happened to the rest of the crew?”

“Just wait a minute.” Said Lance.

“What? Oh right, we need to think of a plan.” Said Pidge. They frowned a little as they attempted to strategize a plan to get Shiro out.

As they did so, Lance just used the binoculars and waited. Sure enough he saw Keith pull up and jump off his hover bike. This dream was really, really weird. Maybe whatever he drank made him relive his old memories or something? He wasn’t sure.

“No need to think of a plan. Keith’s got it.” He said. He watched for a few seconds as Keith swiftly kicked everyone’s ass as he made his way inside. “Come on.”

“Wait, who’s Keith?” Asked Pidge as they ran behind him. Hunk followed them.

The trio entered the main room of the quarantine building just in time to see Keith lifting an unconscious Shiro off the gurney. Lance walked over to them without saying a word and pulled Shiro’s other arm over his own shoulder.

“Okay, let’s get the heck out of here before backup arrives.” Said Lance.

Keith looked at him like he was a freak. “Um, who are you?”

“The name’s Lance mullet head.” Said Lance calmly. “Let’s skip the pleasantries and move it.”

“... Okay?” Keith still seemed confused but they managed to drag Shiro outside and to the hoverbike. 

As they did so Hunk acted as look out and cringed as he spotted troops on the horizon. “Oh man they are coming back and they do not look happy. We gotta go.” He and Pidge ran over to the hover bike and quickly climbed on. “Mind if we catch a ride with you?” The bike tipped.

“Um, is this thing going to be big for all of us?” Asked Pidge.

“No.” Grunted Keith in annoyance.

Lance rolled his eyes as he adjusted Shiro. “Shut up and drive. We don’t have time for this Keith.”

Keith looked like he was going to snap back at him, but they didn’t have time to argue. The Garrison troops were closing in. After a speedy get away from the troops where Keith jumped off a damn cliff to get away, they ended up at Keith’s shack out in the desert. Shiro had woken up with amnesia but was able to tell them about the Galra and Voltron.

Lance had tuned most of this out as he was thinking about his own predicament. He was very sure that this was not a dream. Something weird had happened to him 20 years in the future, well, technically 21 years or so. Give or take. Either way, something had happened and now he was back in his teenage body right at the start of his adventures with Voltron.

His eyes suddenly lit up at that revelation. If he had gone back. This was before Allura had died. He could change everything. He could save her, right? They just needed to find Blue and get to her. Lance hoped that Blue would still accept him as her Paladin. If only Red would accept him now, then they were kind of stuffed.

***

Needless to say they ended up finding the cave and finding Blue. Everyone was looking at her in awe, but Lance paid no attention to that. He felt that familiar feeling of Blue reaching out to him. She seemed confused by his presence, but was extremely happy to see that he was there. Lance knocked on the shield and raced inside as soon as it dropped.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Yelled Keith.

“Lance!” Called Hunk. “That’s dangerous!”

“Just trust me!” Called Lance. “I know what I’m doing!”

Flying Blue was just as easy as he remembered. It was like riding a bike, you never forgot. Still, Lance couldn’t help doing a few barrel rolls just to make everyone else scream in shock before blasted off through the wormhole.

The second they landed Lance took off running into the castle despite the protests of everyone else. They called out and said it was dangerous to just run out and into an alien structure on an alien planet. Lance didn’t care. He ran as fast as he could down the dusty hallways into the medbay. There he saw them. Allura and Coran suspended in their pods.

“Allura…” He whispered. Lance was about to open her pod when Shiro grabbed his arm.

“Whoa, hold your horses there kiddo.” He said. “You can’t just run off and do whatever you want. You have no idea what could be in here.”

“It’s okay.” Said Lance. “I know what I am doing. Just trust me Shiro.”

“What is this place?” Asked Hunk.

While Shiro was distracted by Hunk, Lance quickly snuck away and went over to Allura’s pod. He freed her just as Pidge and Keith entered the room. They all watched as the white haired woman’s eyes snapped open and she fell out of her pod with a gasp.

“Father!” Lance caught her and he almost felt like crying when he saw her face. He really hoped that this was real. It had been 20 years since he had last seen her and she was just as beautiful as he remembered her. “... You have ugly ears…”

After Allura put him in an armlock and Coran awoke from cryostasis things happened beat for beat like they did before. Allura was informed about the Galra, she assigned the Paladin’s their lions and their bayards. The only main difference was that Lance kept his mouth shut through the whole thing. There was no need to say anything. He’d already done this a lifetime ago.

***

Hunk and Lance went to get the Yellow lion and Hunk knew that something was up with Lance. He was… different. Something was just very, very off with him. Maybe it was just the stress finding out that aliens exist and that there was a 10 000 year war going on, but it was weird. He knew that Lance had a weird rivalry going on with Keith, but he didn’t even say a word about it when they met. He just grabbed Shiro and told Keith to move it.

“Hey, are you okay?” He asked.

“Hmm? What are you talking about buddy?” Asked Lance. 

Hunk shrugged. “I don’t know but you seem a little…”

“Just the shock of aliens and stuff you know.” Said Lance calmly.

“I guess but you were acting a little weird before we saved Shiro…” Said Hunk. “Like, you didn’t even mention that rivalry you had going on with Keith. Like, weren’t you going over flight simulation scores yesterday?”

Lance frowned a little as he thought back. “Hmm, I guess I was… Screw it. That’s all in the past you know?” He grinned and stretched. “Damn, feels so good to be able to stretch and not feel paralyzing back pain again.”

“... Are you okay?”

“Yeah, all good.” Said Lance with a grin. He did seem happier than he did before, but something was still very off about him. “Anyway, we gotta get Yellow first then we gotta figure out how to bond with them so we can for Voltron. The sooner we can create Voltron the better, you know? This is war after all.”

“Man, you sure got serious about this real quick.”

“Gotta get serious when an entire galaxy’s worth of lives is in your hands.” Said Lance. “Oh, and we gotta find Pidge’s dad as soon as possible.”

Hunk gave him a confused look. “What?”

“Sam. He was on the Kerberos mission with Shiro and Matt. Matt’s Pidge’s brother.”

Hunk was even more confused.. “I’m sorry, but what?”

Lance shrugged. “If Shiro was captured by the Galra then it stands to reason that Sam and Matt got taken too. Sam’s too old to fight so he was probably taken as some kind of science prisoner and Matt’s um…” Lance suddenly looked conflicted. “If Matt is alive he was probably taken to the same place as Shiro. I trust that Matt is still alive out there somewhere. We’ll get her back to him.”

“Okay, but you’re calling Pidge a girl?”

“Yeah? Isn’t it kind of obvious?” Asked Lance. “I mean, come on really? Like for a while I kind of assumed that Pidge might have been a trans boy, but the more I thought about it and looked at pictures of the missing scientists it all kind of clicked? Pidge joined the Garrison under a fake name to find out all she could about the mission to find her family. Plus Pidge has never actually referred to themselves as a boy. Mostly just they and them. Anyway, pronouns aside we are here.” Said Lance as they entered the atmosphere. “You’re gonna wanna get out and do a barrel roll while I distract the Galra.”

“... You’re joking, right?”

Lance gave Hunk a grin that clearly showed that he wasn’t joking in the slightest. It made Hunk sick with worry. Almost literally. He felt his stomach quiver.

***

The next few days were interesting for Lance to say the least. He had quickly realized that this was 100% not a dream when he woke back up in the castleship and cried. Something happened to him 20 years in the future that was able to give him a second chance. Maybe it was Allura’s spirit that decided that he had suffered enough and was finally able to redeem himself? No matter the case he was going to become the best soldier he could to save Allura.

That being said, he couldn’t believe how awful everyone was at piloting their lions compared to him. He and Blue were running rings around everyone else. Their bond was almost instantaneous. Which did seem to frustrate a few of the other Paladins. Mostly Keith. He was the one that vocalised it the most anyway.

 _“How the hell are you doing that?!”_ Snapped Keith after he almost crashed into the ground. _“I thought you were a cargo pilot?_

Lance shrugged. “You gotta just go with the flow, you know? Blue kind of reacts to the things around her. So I do too. Red on the other hand, if she’s anything like you is more emotion based. You gotta go with your gut instinct.”

 _“And how would you know how to pilet Red?”_ Snapped Keith.

“Gut instinct kid.”

_“... Did you just call me a kid?”_

Shiro sighed loudly over the intercoms. _“Okay, I think it’s time we take a break. No point in continuing if we’re going to get frustrated like that and… Has anyone seen Hunk?”_

Seconds later the Yellow lion crashed into the ground and left a sizable hole. _“Sorry… Still working out landing…”_

The team put their lions in the hanger and headed out. Keith approached Lance and stuck his finger in his chest. “Who do you think you are telling me how to pilet Red? Just stick to trying to pilot your own lion.”

Coran cleared his throat as he walked towards the paladin’s with Allura. “Actually number two, this is one of the fastest bonds we have ever seen between Paladin and lion. Even the original Paladin’s had some difficulty. Number four here is a natural.”

Lance just shrugged. “There’s a trick to piloting all the lions. It’s just luck that I managed to figure out how Blue worked faster than everyone else. But I know with practice we will be able to form Voltron in no time.”

“Well said number four.” Said Coran with a smile.

“It isn’t good enough.” Said Allura. “Zarkon is out there and looking for all the lions. The sooner we form Voltron the sooner we can end the Galra and their stranglehold on the universe. It isn’t good enough that Lance is the only competent pilot we have! You all formed Voltron once already! Why can’t you just do it again?!”

Pidge frowned. “Hey, to be fair Hunk and I aren’t pilots. I’m a tech expert and he’s an engineer. Cut us some slack.”

“Pidge is right Allura.” Said Shiro. “Besides, it’s not like we have been training for very long. You need to give us time.”

Allura sighed in frustration and stormed out of the room. Coran shook his head and gave the Paladin’s an apologetic look. “I’m really sorry about that… I’ll go and talk to her.”

Everyone was tired and annoyed with how things were going and ended up wandering off to do their own thing. Lance ended up trying to remember where the library was. He didn’t really remember where everything in the castleship was. It had been over 20 years for him since the entire place blew up after all.

He eventually found it and actually found Allura. She was going through books and looked more and more frustrated. His heart skipped a beat as he saw her. He wanted to run over to her and hold her. He wanted to let her know that everything was going to be alright but he restrained himself. He wasn’t sure how she would react to him knowing everything that he knew.

“Hi Allura.” He said quietly.

She looked up at him and gave him a tired smile. “Hello Lance… How are you?”

“I’m okay, but what about you?”

“I’m… I’m frustrated. You were able to bond with Blue like you two have known each other your whole lives but the others… I just don’t understand.” She admitted. “I want to be able to defeat Zarkon and end this war, and avenge my people for what he did.”

Lance nodded and closed the distance between them. “It’s okay Allura. I understand your frustrations. The Galra have done terrible things and they are going to continue to do terrible things. Trying to force us to bond with our lions is only going to make it harder for everyone. I know you want to get off the planet as soon as possible, but we need time.”

She chuckled a little and nodded. “Yes, I guess you are right… You know, despite being so young you are pretty level headed. Maybe you should pilot the Black lion instead?”

Lance just laughed at that. He had long since given up hope of being the leader. “Me? The leader of Voltron? No way. I’m just the support guy. Shiro makes a much better leader than me. We all look up to him. I just got lucky with Blue.”

“I guess…” She sighed and put her book down. “Okay Lance… What would you propose we do to help build up your bond as a team?”

Lance thought back to how they bonded the first time. He couldn’t help but chuckle. Those were fun times. “I have a few ideas…”


	3. Concussion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And have another chapter. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Right now Lance had a problem. Sure he made a few suggestions and eventually everything ended in a food fight where everyone started to get along and started to bond as a team… But other things happened too. Like meeting the Arusians and defeating the Robeast. Which was really awesome, but Lance knew this meant one thing. Sendak was coming.

When Sendak arrived was when shit would get real. Even if Lance just did exactly what he did last time then everything would turn out fine. The only thing that he could think of that would make an impact on the war revolved around Sendak.

When they captured Sendak and put him in cryostasis he would eventually escape and continue to fuck with them. Lance could only see one possible option to prevent this outcome. It was something no other Paladin would realistically consider this early in their career. He was going to have to kill Sendak.

“I’m going.” Said Pidge.

Lance glanced over to where Allura and Pidge were talking. Pidge had a bag over her arm and looked like she was getting ready to leave. Lance had almost forgotten that Pidge was going to run away to try and find Sam and Matt. That issue was resolved extremely quickly.

He listened to everyone try to convince Pidge to stay. Even Keith got in on the action. “You can’t leave.” He said.

“You can’t tell me what to do.” Said Pidge.

“If you leave we can’t form Voltron!” Snapped Keith. He was getting increasingly pissed off by the second. “And that means we can’t defend the universe against Zarkon. You’re not the only one with a family. You’re putting the lives of two people over everyone else in the entire Galaxy!”

Shiro grabbed Keith’s arm. “Keith. That’s enough.”

Lance decided it was time he interjected with his own opinion. “Look, I get it Pidge.” He said. “You think you can find your family on your own, but think about it logically. Voltron is more than just five idiots in some metal cats. We inspire people. We are going to liberate people from Zarkon. There will be Galra bases with information you can mine and sift through to your heart’s content. Going off on your own isn’t going to get them back any faster. With Voltron you have a better chance of finding them alive.”

She gave Lance a confused look before she sighed and her shoulders sagged. “Since when did you start making sense? … Look, I’ll sleep on it. Okay?”

“That’s all we ask.” Said Lance. “I know you’ll make the right choice in the end. No matter what it is.”

Keith glared at Lance like he had just told Pidge to leave. Lance just shrugged and went to find a bathroom. He needed to pee before everything goes down. He still needed to decide if he should get a concussion or not when Haxus sends his Rover bomb into the castle. On one hand he could stop the bomb before it reaches the crystal that powers the whole ship, but if he did then that would mean that Coran and Hunk would have no reason to go to the Balmeras and Hunk would never meet Shay.

“... Fuck.” Lance had weight up his options. He was going to get a concussion.

***

“Coran look out!” Lance dived on top of Coran just as the Rover bomb exploded, shattering the crystal. Everything was going to hell, but it was all according to plan. Lance checked out for most of the fight. The only thing he really remembered was waking up for a few moments with Keith by his side, just long enough to shoot Sendak’s arm off and tell Keith that they make a good team. Then he passed out again and the next thing he knew he stumbled out of a healing pod.

He was then fed some space goo while being informed of events he already knew of. He felt a sense of nostalgia as he heard about Allura and Keith defending the Arusians, Shiro fighting Sendak hand to hand, Coran and Hunk heading to the Balmera to get the crystal, and of course Pidge pretty much saving the whole team.

“You’d be Sendak’s prisoner now if not for Pidge.” Said Allura.

Pidge grinned. “Well, you wouldn’t have survived the explosion if Hunk and Coran hadn’t gotten a new crystal.”

“Thanks everybody.” Said Lance. He looked at the mice and then up at Keith. The gloomy teen was still glaring at him. “And what did you do? Seems like the mice did more than you.” He teased playfully.

“I punched Sendak.” Said Keith in a defensive manner.

“Yeah, after I apparently emerged from a coma and shot his arm off.”

Keith had an indigent look on his face. “We had a bonding moment! I cradled you in my arms!”

“I know. I never said that didn’t happen.” Said Lance. “I’m just asking what did you do besides punch Sendak in the face?” Keith looked kind of lost for words. Lance ignored his shock and looked up at Allura. “So, we’re heading back to the Balmera, right? We have to save Shay and the other Balmarins, right? Let’s man up and get going.” The others nodded and started to head out of the room.

“Wait, I have something to say first.” Said Pidge. “I need to come clean, and I’m afraid this might change the way you all think about me. Just so there are no more secrets between us, I can’t man up… I’m a girl.”

Allura smiled and nodded. “I have known for some time. But I am glad you shared with everyone.”

“Yeah, I figured.” Said Hunk

“Oh yeah, me too.” Said Keith.

Coran had a confused look on his face. “Wait, we were supposed to think you were a boy?”

Shiro smiled. “Pidge, owning who you are will make you a better Paladin.” 

Lance grinned. “Hey, I kind of assumed your pronouns were he and him since you were hanging out in the men’s dorms back in the Garrison. But if you say you’re a girl then you’re a girl.”

Pidge looked shocked, but she smiled warmly at them. “Thanks guys. That’s a huge relief. Now let’s launch this castleship!”

***

The castleship took off and Lance made his way to the viewing deck where he could watch all of space unfold in front of him. All those unfamiliar yet all so familiar stars. He forgot hot crazy the first week or so was for Voltron. It was just non stop hitting point A to point B like someone had lit a fire under their ass.

But with this moment he had to think about Sendak. He was the one that invaded Earth. Killing him didn’t mean that the Galra wouldn’t invade Earth, but if he did that it might be delayed enough for them to get there in time. Then there were all the other things he had to deal with. Like the ship going crazy and almost killing them all, the Shiro clone thing which was always fun, everyone getting kidnapped or hurt or betrayed, Allura’s space racist episode… And that was all before Lotor even entered the picture. Fuck Lotor. Like seriously.

He took a deep breath. “One problem at a time kid… You have a lot to deal with… Just focus on the mission. Save Allura and the universe… Fuck.”

Lance walked out of the room and headed down to where the cryo pods were and by default, Sendak. The Galra was frozen in place and almost looked peaceful. Which pissed Lance off to no end. This bastard was completely sadistic with a capital S. This was war. They couldn’t afford to be soft against the worst Galra. As far as Lance was concerned that meant Zarkon, Lotor, Sendak, and Haggar. Those four needed to die. Technically he wouldn’t have to do anything and Zarkon would die, but he wasn’t going to risk that shit. Any chance he could to kill the Galra emperor he would.

He looked at the control panel that controlled Sendak’s pod. He knew how to do some basic hacking, something he learned when some of the doors jammed on him a few times. He could just hack it, make sure that the pressure in the pod was fucked and then he could launch him into space then he would die in the vacuum of space… Or he could shoot him in the head and then launch him? That way he would know that Sendak was really dead.

“Lance?”

Lance looked over to Shiro. The man was walking over to him. He had this look in his eyes that just gave off this vibe that he was going to have a talk with him about something. Lance just put on a smile.

“Yeah Shiro? What’s up?”

“I came to check on Sendak… What are you doing here?”

“Same as you.” He said. “Just checking on Sendak.”

“Yeah…” Shiro stood next to Lance and stared at Sendk’s frozen form. 

Shiro had a far off look in his eyes and if Lance was honest he probably did too. Maybe he could talk to Shiro a bot about what he was going through? Shiro had been forced to fight for the amusement of the Galra, so he was already damaged by this war. Lance was also damaged by this war that hadn’t really happened.

“... Hey Shiro?”

“Yeah Lance?”

“We really are at war huh? Like, we’re putting ourselves in the front line and could die any day.”

“Well, technically yes? But you should be thinking like that.”

Lance shrugged. “Well I almost died in that explosion before so… Anyway, it’s got me thinking about our mortality and all that stuff and well, since you are the leader of Voltron it got me wondering what would happen if something happened to you and well, I don’t want to step on your toes or anything but… If something happens to you, I want Keith to lead Voltron.”

Shiro looked surprised. “You want Keith to lead Voltron? Why?”

Lance shrugged again. “Can’t explain it, but when I see Keith, I see the future. Yeah, he’s a bit of a hot head and needs to temper that aggression, but I think he’d make a good leader. If something happened to you of course. Which it won’t. Because you’re like, the best and all that…”

“That’s um… That’s an interesting way to put it? Um, anyway, we have team training in twenty. We need to get better working together as a team if we are going to beat Zarkon.”

“Ay, ay, captain.” Lance gave Shiro a little salute and walked off to the training room. He would get there a little early and start on some warm ups. He wasn’t sure if his body was strong enough to do what he could do by the end of the war, but he would give it a go.

***

“Something’s off with Lance.” Said Hunk and he, Pidge and Keith walked to the training room. “Like, he isn’t his usual boisterous self. He’s more… He’s kind of like a younger version of Shiro? If that makes sense?”

“Maybe he’s just a little fucked up because of all this alien and war stuff?” Asked Pidge. “Like, yeah, he’s not as goofy as he was, but maybe this is how he’s able to deal with this situation?”

“Isn’t this kind of a good thing?” Asked Keith. “Lance is getting serious about the war. Wars aren’t meant to be fun. If we don’t get serious then people will die.”

“I guess…” Muttered Hunk. “But still, it has been a few days and Lance is still very… He’s acting weird. I’m not sure what is going on with him but… Okay, yeah, Lance is serious about this stuff which is good, but he’s not acting like Lance anymore.”

Coran happened to cross their paths and grinned. “Ah Paladins! Good to see you. Are you going to the training room too? It might be good for Lance to have a partner to fight against for a bit.”

“Lance is training?” Asked Pidge. “Man, he’s working harder than he did at the Garrison.”

Coran frowned. “Well, I don’t know much about the Garrison, but he’s already got an extremely high score on the shooting range. He only missed one or two out of around fifty targets.”

The trio got to the training room just as Shiro arrived. He smiled and waved at them. “Hey guys. All ready for some last minute training before we get to the Balmera? Where’s Lance?”

Pidge pointed to the training room. “According to Coran he’s already in there.”

“... Really?” Shiro opened the door and everyone was treated to the sight of Lance fighting some training robots. 

They had shields but Lance was hitting them with deadly accuracy. A robot snuck up behind him and was about to swing their sword at Lance’s back, but before they could, Lance quickly swung around and his bayard turned from a rifle and into a broadsword. It cut the robot in half and the training session ended. Lance stood there panting heavily as he leaned against the broadsword

“Your bayard can change into two things?!” Asked Hunk in shock.

Lance glanced over at them and looked down at the sword. “Um… Yeah? Can’t yours?”

Pidge quickly went over to him and started looking at Lance’s bayard. “Maybe you get some weird perks from being the Blue Paladin or something? Looks like Keith isn’t the only sword guy around here?”

“Oh, I’m not good with a sword.” Said Lance quickly. “I’m much more of a sniper. My sword’s just more for crowd control when enemies get too close. Though we could do some one on one training from time to time Keith?”

Keith glared at him, but Shiro answered for him. “That sounds like a good idea Lance. We can think about that later, but for now we need to do some team building exercises. If we’re going to form Voltron then we are going to need to trust each other.”

“Just give me five minutes…” Panted Lance. “I am really out of shape…”

Shiro nodded a little. “Okay, Lance, take five to catch your breath. Everyone else, we’re going to do a quick warm up.”

Lance quickly gave a thumbs up and wandered over to lean august the wall. He quickly drank an H2O pouch and watched the rest of the term warm up. Hunk still felt a little unnerved by this. Lance wasn’t the kind of guy to just throw himself into this kind of stuff. The guy hardly ever studied to begin with. Well he did, but he didn’t like it and Lance never really took the initiative.

After they had finished their warm up they were doing some exercise where they were standing around in a circle back to back while they had a bunch of lasers shooting at them. The aim was to defend each other, and not get hit. Something like that.

“This should be pretty easy.” Said Lance. “It’s all about trusting that our team has our back right?

 _“Well said number four.”_ Said Coran. _“Now do your best. You have to have your teammate’s back when it comes to war. No lone wolf tactics. You’ll only end up getting each other killed.”_

The lasers started up and, to no one’s surprise they didn’t really do that good. The whole team got taken out extremely quickly. The last one standing though was Lance, which was a little shocking, but he was quickly taken out. They got a bit of a verbal beat down from Allura about needing to be a team, but in the end she dismissed everyone for the evening. They needed to be well rested when they got to the Balmera the next day.

Hunk was beat and kind of just wanted to relax with Lance and Pidge. “Hey Lance, we’re going to go and try to figure out alien TV. Want to join us?”

Much to his shock, Lance shook his head. “Nah. I have some training I want to do before I head to bed.” This strange look crossed Lance’s face for a moment. “With my body the way it is now… I need to get as strong as possible as fast as possible. I’m not strong enough.”

“Um… Okay? Don’t over do it buddy…” Hunk left the room with Pidge and gave her a look. “So I assume you heard that?”

Pidge nodded. “Yeah, okay. There’s something kind of off about him. We’ll deal with it after we rescue Shay, okay?” Hunk nodded in agreement. Shay was top priority at the moment.


	4. Deadline

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coran is a very smart man. Goofy, but smart. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

The fight to free Shay and save the Balmaea was pretty by the books in Lance’s opinion. They swooped in, saved Shay, saved the Balmera, fought that googly eyed robeast fucker, Allura supercharged the Balmera, the Balmera encased the Robeast in crystal and Voltron saved the day. Sure Allura needed to rest after draining so much energy to complete this task, but they won. Hunk even got the girl in the end. There was nothing drastic that Lance felt he needed to change.

Lance stood back a bit as he watched Coran take Allura back into the castleship. She was in good hands. He wouldn’t be any help to her at the moment. He still had more pressing things to deal with. They were going to go off world now while Allura recovered. In about a week the castleship would go ballistic and Sendak would get ejected into space. If Lance was going to kill him he was going to have to do it soon.

Then there was all that other crap that was going to go down relatively soon after that with Allura getting captured and Haggar corrupting their wormhole blasting them all across the universe. Though it would be fun to see the mer people again.

“You okay there Lance?” Asked Pidge.

“Huh?”

Pidge smiled slightly at him. “You look like you’re somewhere else.”

That made Lance laugh. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

“Yeah… You know, Hunk and I are both kind of worried about you. You’ve been a little off since that night…”

“Oh, really?” Lance had neglected that part. He had been so focused on becoming the best Paladin to save Allura he had forgotten about the whole team bonding thing. He knew he had changed a fair bit because of everything he went through, but he didn’t think he had changed that much. Well, it felt like a gradual change to him, but he was probably a completely different person to his friends.

“Yeah, really.”

Lance nodded a little as he thought this over. “Sorry… I’ve just been a little thrown off by all of this. Like, aliens and stuff you know? It’s pretty crazy. But um… want to show me how that alien TV works?”

Pidge smiled happily at him. She seemed relieved at the moment. “Yeah. Hunk and I found a weird thing and we have no idea if it’s an alien kids TV show or alien porn.”

“... What?”

“You have to see it to understand.”

***

Lance sat on the couch as Hunk and Pidge went about going through intergalactic TV to try and find that weird alien channel. As they talked to each other Lance couldn’t help but smile. These moments of nostalgia were precious to him. He wished he could have cherished these moments more with his friends. They grew apart so fast. It was pretty tragic.

“I can’t find the channel.” Said Hunk.

“Damn…” Muttered Pidge. “Oh well, let’s find something weird to watch.”

They put it onto some random colourful alien TV show and sat around the couch. It was nice, but Lance’s mind kept wandering to Sendak. He only had a few days to kill him, but he should wait until they extracted some memories from him first. The castleship was going to go nuts in a few days. He could probably avoid getting locked in the medbay, but he wasn’t too sure about the airlock. While he didn’t want to do that again the airlock was helpful when it came to making sure that Keith didn’t get killed.

“You okay there buddy?” Asked Hunk.

“Oh um… Just thinking about Allura.” Said Lance. “I hope she’s doing okay…”

“She should be okay.” Said Pidge. “Coran’s taking good care of her. She’ll be fine in a few days.”

“I know…” Said Lance. “But I’m still worried about Allura. She is… Guys, I’m in love with her.”

Pidge gave him a playful look and lightly nudged his side. “Yeah? You and the princess huh? Think you have a shot with her? You were a big flirt back at the Garrison.”

Hunk laughed a little. “Yeah, man I bet some of those girls would be all over you now if they knew you were a Paladin.”

That made Lance laugh. “Man, I’d be getting all the ladies… Anyway, the only woman I have eyes on is Allura… I um, do you think that Coran will let me see her, or is that too creepy?”

Hunk shrugged. “I guess you could always ask?”

“Yeah, just don’t start cutting off locks of her hair or something while she sleeps.” Said Pidge.

Lance rolled his eyes and poked her head. “Quiet you. Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about finding your family.”

Pidge immediately perked up. “Yeah?”

“I think we should look at prison and work camps. Your dad isn’t much of a fighter, right but he is very smart.” Said Lance. “He’d probably be put to work building Galra stuff… And your brother might be in a work camp. We should probably also see if there are any resistance groups out there. It’s a slim chance but your brother or dad could maybe even be working with the resistance. We have to look at every possibility.”

Pidge nodded in agreement. “That sounds pretty logical. Okay. When we get a chance to get info I’m going to try and look into that more.”

“Sounds good.” Said Hunk.

The trio watched space TV for a bit longer before they went off to get dinner. It was still normal food goo. It would still be about a week before Hunk figured out how to properly flavour it. Shiro and Keith joined them when the trio sat down and they talked for a bit. Mostly about the Balmera and Allura’s condition.

Coran happily walked past them when Lance was finishing eating. Shiro noticed him too. “Coran, are you going to eat with us?”

“Not right now number one.” Said Coran. “I’m going to make some tea for Allura and bring it to her.”

“She’s awake?” Asked Pidge.

Coran nodded. “For the moment. Still a little weak. It would be best if she got some fluids into her.”

Lance quickly stood up. “I can help you out with that. If Allura is up for visitors. I kind of want to see if she’s okay.” Hunk and Pidge couldn’t stop grinning when he said that. 

Coran shrugged. “Well if you like you can help me carry they tray. I could being her a small bowl of food goo too.”

Lance agreed and the two quickly took some tea and food goo to Allura. She seemed to be semi conscious and kind of surprised that Lance was with Coran. Lance placed the tray on a small table next to Allura’s bed while Coran helped the Princess sit up.

“There you go. How are you feeling?” He asked.

Allura groaned a little. “Tired and my head hurts… It feels like I’ve come down with the worst case of wingelhuffs.”

“Ah yes. Wingelhuffs are the worst.” Agreed Coran. “Anyway, nothing cures wingelhuffs faster than a spot of tea and some food.”

“I don’t think I can even lift a spoon, let alone a teacup…”

Lance just smiled at her. “This is where I come in. Back on earth I had a huge family. I was always taking care of the young ones when they were sick. Let me help you out Princess.”

Allura gave him a weary look. “Lance, as much as I appreciate the gesture I do not need your help.”

“We all need help once in a while Allura.” Said Lance calmly. “Now come on. Voltron doesn’t just need the Paladin’s. We need you too. We aren’t Voltron without you Allura.”

He couldn’t tell if Allura was blushing or if she was just having trouble processing his words. “Yes?”

Coran helped Allura drink a bit of tea and ate a mouthful of food. That was all she could really stomach before she became too lethargic to keep eating or drinking. Allura quickly fell back to sleep and Coran instructed Lance to leave the tea and food incase she wanted something when she woke back up.

As they walked back to the dining room, Lance happened to ask Coran what a wingelhuff was. Coran quickly went on a long winded talk about wingelhuffs. Eventually he led Lance to the castleship’s library so that he could show him a book containing information about winglehuffs. Turns out it was similar to the common cold.

But now that Lance was in the library, he couldn’t help but think about maybe looking up the alien that he had met on Allura day. He had time to think about the reason why he was here and what could have brought him back to this time. The only thing he could think of was the green alien and that weird drink she gave him. 

So when Coran had finished showing Lance the book on winglehuffs, Lance started to look around to see if there were books on time traveling aliens. Either that or aliens that could manipulate physics. Needless to say Coran obviously figured out that Lance was after something.

“What are you looking for my boy?”

“Well… I’ve just been thinking, there are a lot of different aliens out there.” Said Lance. “They probably know how to do things that humans can’t do. I’m just kind of interested in that… Like, what if there is some kind of alien out there that can defy the laws of physics as I know it?”

“Ah, aliens that can change the laws of physics you say?” Coran thought for a minute before he grabbed a book and opened it up. “Let’s see… the Jorgan of Remite-9 are known to have their own gravitational pull? Oh! Here is one I’ve always found fascinating. The Tetax of Crono.” He showed Lance a picture of a green skinned alien with three orange eyes and an elephant trunk. It looked like that alien Lance had met on Allura day. Madam Whipash.

“Tetax?” Questioned Lance as he took the book from him. Yes, this was definitely the same alien woman he saw 20 years from now.

Coran nodded. “Yep. The Tetax are a very aloof species. It was said that they could see the future. However, not much is known about them. Crono is a planet that’s said to be near the center of the universe. The first planet that allegedly had sentient life. Anyway, the planet apparently became uninhabitable and the Tetax scattered through the galaxy. Probably for the best too. It was around the time that they scattered that people discovered the time bending properties of the thaumaturgy.”

Lance remembered that. “Thaumaturgy?”

“Yep. Thaumaturgy. Now, how to explain it...” Coran thought for a moment. “I myself am not too sure about how this stuff was meant to work, but the Tetax can brew this drink called the Thaumaturgy. It gives the person who drinks it to travel to any previous event in their lives and live that moment all over again. However, you will have to relive the moment from the past up until the present day where you first drank it. Some people have claimed to have taken it and changed past events of their lives, though it can’t be confirmed. It’s practically impossible to find the Tetax anyway.”

“Why is that?”

“Well once people heard about the properties of the thaumaturgy they all wanted it. Imagine if Zarkon got his hands on something like that. He could completely change the whole war…” They frowned a little and gave Lance a strange look.

“Something wrong Coran?”

The older Altean stared at him with intensity for a few moments before he turned his attention back to the books on the shelf. “You know, the thaumaturgy is only meant to jump back for short periods of time… If someone jumped back a few years they could… They would have to be very careful. If they changed something small it could have a huge impact later on in the future. The Tetax only gave it to those who they believed could change their fate or people that they had read good things for in the future if the future said they would need to go back.”

“And if they did something to change an event to save someone?”

“Well, they would have to be careful.” Said Coran in an oddly calm manner. “They would need to think of things in an objective manner and have to carefully navigate the situation. They would need to decide if doing one action would lead to something else with a completely different outcome than they thought would happen…”

“And if someone had to do something violent to prevent a tragedy from happening, would you consider that a good thing or a bad thing?” Asked Lance.

Coran shrugged. “Well, I guess it all depends on the situation and hindsight… But only the outsider looking in could make that kind of decision. No one else would have their perspective. We would only be able to judge them on the actions we see.”

“Okay…” Lance passed Coran the book and started to walk out of the room.

“What did it taste like?” Asked Coran.

“Hmm?”

“Thaumaturgy. What does it taste like?”

A small smile made its way onto Lance’s face. “Strawberries, bubblegum, and soap.”

“Interesting… Well, I hope your mission goes well.”

“My mission?”

“As a Paladin of Voltron I trust that your mission is to defend the universe at all costs?”

“Of course.”

“That’s good. Now off you go. I have some books to dust.”

Lance nodded and left the room. He was okay with Coran knowing he wasn’t from this time. As long as he didn’t do anything egregious then he doubted that he would do anything. He still needed to figure out if he was going to kill Sendak or not. Killing him now would save them all from a lot of pain and suffering. But if he didn’t do this right then everyone was going to freak out on him. He had a deadline.


	5. Crystal Venom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Named as such because this chapter is mostly based around that particular episode. Anyway, Lance learns a bit about how much things can change if he doesn't follow the script. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Lance stood in front of Sendak’s cryostasis pod for what felt like hours. They were in the middle of downloading information from him so they could comb through his memories. This was a good thing. Soon Sendak wouldn’t be any more use to them and then he was completely disposable. This was war. They were still in the early staged and didn’t know the full extent of the horror that they would have to face.

Speaking of horror, Lance had, for better or worse, formulated a hit list for the people he needed to kill. He actually ordered it from most important to least; Haggar, Lotor, Sendak, Zarkon. The only reason he put Zarkon so low on his list of priorities was because Lotor would eventually kill him. However he would kill them as necessary.

For the best results he should probably kill them in the order; Sendak, Zarkon, Haggar, and Lotor. He couldn’t kill Lotor before he killed Haggar since she would go crazy and Lotor’s death kind of prompted her to start destroying realities which caused Allura to sacrifice herself. He couldn’t let that happen. Any chance he got he would kill Haggar. She was his main target. If Haggar was killed then the druids would be in disarray and the empire was quickly start to fracture and break apart.

But for the moment, he had to deal with Sendak. He needed to figure out if this was what he needed to do to save the universe or if this would have dire consequences for the war. All he could think about was the impact that it would have on Earth. They still didn’t know a damn thing about aliens, let alone the intergalactic war. 

Lance took a deep breath and left the room, quickly making his way down to the hanger. Pidge and Hunk had set up a lot of their equipment there. Thankfully they weren’t in there at the moment. Lance looked through their workstations and started picking up different bits and pieces. Sendak’s survival meant the death and enslavement of millions of humans. He was not going to let that happen.

He borrowed a few tools along with parts and snuck away to his room. From going through previous events of what was to come in his mind he concluded that he needed to help Keith get rid of the training android that tries to kill him, however if he did then he wouldn’t have time to kill Sendak covertly before Shiro ejects him into space.

His solution was to make a pressure sensitive explosive. He’d place the detonator on the pod the night before everything went to shit and then as soon as it launched into space it would explode. Sendak would either die in the explosion or he would die in the vacuum of space. They could just chalk the explosion up to the pod being faulty and Shiro could be seen as a hero for potentially stopping an explosion happening on the castleship.

There was only one problem with his plan… He didn’t have anything explosive on him. He would need to ask Coran about this. Which wasn’t a hard thing to do since Coran kind of knew that he was from the future and everything. Though it might be hard if Coran starts asking for specifics. He’d have to risk it.

Once the bomb was almost finished he went to find Coran. The Altean was in the control room of the training deck watching Keith and Shiro practicing some hand to hand combat. Coran acknowledged that he was there and Lance did the same before watching the duo.

If Lance was completely honest with himself he had a deep admiration for the two black paladin’s. Shiro was the level headed leader that they wanted in the beginning to keep them on the straight and narrow. Without him and his guidance the team would have been much worse off. Then there was Keith. That hot head with that stupid mullet cut had more potential than all of them. Despite his hardships and the adversity he faced, Keith was the true leader they needed. Especially after that fire in him got tempered a little. Working with the Blade really helped him grow, much more than he could have when he was part of Voltron.

“They have made a lot of improvements over the past few days.” Said Coran. “Don’t you think?”

“Yeah they have.” Agreed Lance. “Shiro and Keith are an amazing team. One of the best duos we have… Anyway, I’m here for a reason.”

“Your future mission reason I’m guessing?”

Lance smiled a little. “Yeah… I need an explosive. Something small that can go off in the vacuum of space when its container cracks.”

Coran looked shocked. “An explosive?!”

“And I need it before tomorrow morning.”

“That soon?! Lance, I know I said I would help you but this does seem a tad too much… What are you going to try and blow up?”

Lance took a deep breath and gave Coran a cold look. “Coran, if I told you why I need it then I would have to explain everything to you. Why I am here, what happened during the war, if it’s still on going, and what happened to the other paladins. Sharing that could impact the future.”

“And an explosive wouldn’t?” Coran sighed. “Okay… I’m putting a lot of trust in you here Lance…”

“I’m not trying to put the team in danger Coran… But um, over the next few days keep a very, very close eye on Allura… Just a little warning. Okay?”

“... Okay.” Coran sighed a little and nodded. “I’ll have it in your room before you head to bed.”

“Thanks Coran I appreciate it.” Lance patted Coran on the back and left the room. He wasn’t too sure what to do now. He looked down at his hands and frowned. He wasn’t as strong as he was. He needed to get stronger. He was still weak. He had to get stronger for both Allura and the team.

***

Shiro and Keith had to take a quick break after training for so long. Keith was glad that they were finally getting some down time. Even if the two of them were mostly spending their down time training.

“Good work Keith.” Said Shiro. “You’re really coming along well.”

“Thanks. You’re not too bad yourself old man.”

Shiro laughed at that and smiled. “I’m not that old. I’m six. Anyway how are you getting along with the rest of the team?”

Keith shrugged. “They are fine. Hunk’s nice. I like that he’s trying to make that goo stuff taste good. Pidge is really smart and kind of funny… and Lance… Well, Lance is weird. He’s different from what I remembered from the Garrison. Like, he was a loudmouth, bragging idiot with some kind of macho complex but now… I was only gone for about a year and he’s… I don’t want to say mature, but he seems older…”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that too… I’ve talked to Hunk and Pidge about it. I might not have interacted with Lance or knew much about him, but he isn’t really acting like a teenager. He’s acting older. They think he’s just been stressed and adjusting to life in space. He’s apparently starting to act more normal now.”

“Well I guess that’s a good thing.”

“Yeah… Was he acting weird on the Balmera?”

Keith shrugged. “I wouldn’t say weird, but he was… Focused? Like, weirdly so. Nothing seemed to phase him, but he honestly had a weird look in his eyes. I didn’t want to say anything when we were on the Balmera but...There were a few times when he stopped me from entering a room just to enter himself and start shooting. It was strange… You think something happened when he got that concussion saving Coran?”

“Maybe…” Shiro thought for a moment. “Well, we will have to keep an eye on him and make sure that there is nothing too weird going on with him. Okay?”

Keith nodded in agreement. “Yeah, but at least he’s working well in the team, right?”

“I guess that’s true.”

The doors to the training deck opened up and Lance walked in. He smiled at them and waved. “Hey guys. Are you finishing up?”

“Just taking a break.” Said Shiro. “If you want to run a drill or something go ahead.”

Lance nodded and shrugged off his jacket. “Okay, just gonna do some warm ups first.” He dropped to the floor and started to do some pushups in quick succession. Lance seemed completely focused on what he was doing. Which Keith did think was pretty admirable. 

After watching him for a few minutes Lance jumped up and took his bayard out. Keith and Shiro stood back and watched Lance go through his idea of a solo training session. It was kind of intense to say the least. Lance was fighting the same number of training robots that they would fight together as a team. The thing that surprised Keith the most was that Lance was really holding his own. He had this strange look of steely determination in his eyes that was kind of unnerving.

Lance only stopped when a training robot got close enough and knocked him off his feet. Lance laid on his back panting heavily for a few seconds before he punched the ground and muttered some curses under his breath in Spanish.

“Are you okay Lance?” Asked Shiro.

“Just fine…” Muttered Lance. “My reflexes are shot though… That guy shouldn’t have been able to hit me.”

“Maybe try some hand to hand combat?” Suggested Shiro. “It might help out a little?”

Lance thought for a moment before he nodded. “Sure. Guess I’m up against you big guy?”

“Sure. Don’t worry I’ll go easy on you.”

“Don’t bother.” There was some cockiness in his tone that made Keith roll his eyes. There was no way that Lance could beat Shiro in hand to hand combat. 

Seconds later Keith watched as Lance went to punch Shiro, but Shiro blocked. As soon as Shiro went to block Lance changed which hand he was swinging with and punched Shiro squire in the jaw. He quickly followed that up with a roundhouse kick to the chest. Shiro fell flat on his back and Lance was quickly on top of him, one hand on Shiro’s neck and the other hand raised into a fist and ready to strike. In fact he actually took a swing at Shiro, only stopping just before he struck him in the nose.

Everyone froze for a moment before Lance cracked a smile. “Man, who’d have thought that my sister’s beating my ass would come in handy.” He stood up and helped Shiro up.

“You really caught me off guard there.” Said Shiro as he rubbed his neck.

Lance laughed and nervously scratched the back of his head. “Sorry about that. Should have warned you about these hands of mine. They are deadly weapons.”

Shiro laughed and nodded in agreement. “They certainly look like it. Nah, it’s my fault. Should have asked if you had any experience. I won’t go easy on you next time. Okay?”

Lance grinned. “Sounds like a plan to me… Anyway, I have places to be. See you guys later.” He put his jacket back on and walked out of the room.

Once he was gone Keith gave Shiro a concerned look. “Did you seriously get your ass kicked by Lance?”

“He surprised me. That’s all.” Said Shiro.

***

Later that night with the bomb in hand, Lance walked down to where Sendak was and very carefully placed the bomb down the bottom of the cryo pod. It was small, about the size of a coin. Things would work out this time. He looked at Sendak and smirked.

“See you later you sadistic purple fuck.” He walked away from the pod and went to bed. He knew that tomorrow that shit was going to go down, but things would be okay now. He was one step closer to saving Allura.

And right on cue the next day Coran asked Lance to help him in the medbay. Lance was more than happy to do so, but he brought his bayard with him. Coran didn’t question him until they got to the medbay.

“So… Why bring the bayard?” Asked the older man.

“Future stuff.” Said Lance calmly. “... By the way, the most important person to you today is Allura. No one and I mean no one but Allura matters to you. Okay?”

“But the Princess is already-”

“Coran, I’m serious.” Said Lance calmly. “Allura is… Something is going to happen today and I know you will do what you need to do to protect Allura, but I just want you to be extra cautious. Okay?”

The older Altean gave him a weird look but nodded. “Okay. I understand… If you don’t mind, could I ask you how old you really are?”

“I’m 39, going on 40.” Said Lance. “I guess it’s pretty young for an Altean, but on average that’s about half a human’s lifespan. Give or take a few years.”

“Oh goodness! That is quite old.” Said Coran. He frowned a little as he ran a cloth over a console. “Did you live a goodlife up to that point?”

“What would qualify as a good life?” Asked Lance.

“Hmm… One filled with family, friends, minimal regret?”

“Yeah, I didn’t live a good life then.”

“Oh… I’m so sorry Lance… Maybe this time things will be better?”

Lance looked over at him and smiled slightly. “Yeah. Maybe. Just have to change a few things and hopefully I’ll have a long future ahead of me.” They continued to clean and the lights flickered a little. Which made a switch flip inside Lance’s mind. He looked over at Coran. “You should go to Allura now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Coran gave Lance an uneasy look and quickly left the medbay. When he was gone Lance took a few minutes to think about where he needed to be at this moment. Right now, the kitchen would be going crazy and both Hunk and Pidge would be getting attacked by the food goo dispenser. Shiro would probably start having some kind of Galra crystal, PTSD inspired episode, Allura would be talking to the Alfor AI, and Keith would be fighting the training robot that would go nuts in a few minutes.

Lance held his bayard tightly and quickly started to march towards the airlock. The lights flickered out and he saw the ghostly vision of Alfor, but it didn’t phase him. By now Pidge and Hunk would be stuck in 0 gravity. Shiro would be in full panic mode, and Keith would now be running for his life from the training robot.

He stood by the door and waited. A few ticks later he heard Keith grunting as he tried to fight the training robot that was going in for the kill. Lance raised his bayard and calmly waited for his shot. It took a few seconds, but he quickly popped a couple of shots off at the training bot. It stumbled back slightly and Keith looked over at him.

“W-what are you doing?!”

“I got your back mullet.” Said Lance calmly. He popped off another shot, hitting the robot square in the red gem in its face. It cracked and it stumbled back again. “Get it into the airlock.”

Keith nodded and moved around to try and entice the training robot into the airlock, but it quickly changed targets. It ignored Keith and rushed Lance. Lance froze up for a second, but only for a second. With the flick of his wrist he turned his bayard into a broadsword and deflected the attack.

Without hesitation, Lance’s mind quickly fell back into combat mode. Robot or not this thing was an enemy. This was war. All enemies of Voltron and Princess Allura must die. He had to quickly and constantly switch between using his rifle and using his broadsword on the robot, but he was going to treat it like he would any other enemy. Without mercy.

Lance saw an opportunity and with an enraged cry he brought down the sword on the robot’s head. He cracked it in half and it fell to the ground. Lance took a moment to pant heavily as he leaned against his sword. He looked up at Keith, who looked completely shocked.

“Wh-what the hell Lance? Are you okay?” The poor teen seemed dumbfounded by the whole situation.

Lance just shrugged. “I’m fine. I think something’s wrong with the castle. Some stuff’s been malfunctioning in the medbay. We should find the others and-” There was explosion somewhere outside the castleship that rocked it.

“What the fuck was that?”

Lance had to do his best to stop himself from smiling. Shiro must have launched sendak into space and his bomb went off. “Not a clue. We need to find the others and get to Allura before it’s too late.”

“Agreed.”

They were about to take off running when Lance saw the robot getting to its feet. Even without its sword it was a deadly foe. It went to slash at Keith’s back with its claws, but out of instinct Lance pushed him out of the way, getting a rather deep and bloody claw mark on his bicep. Lance swore and it slashed at him again. This time raking its claws across his chest.

It was then that Keith kicked the robot into the airlock. As it slid across the floor, Lance slammed the control panel, closing the door and launching the robot into space. Lance’s legs gave out on him and he fell down. Lance cursed himself. His body was still too weak. He had the mind of an adult, but his body still needed to catch up. 

Also, not getting stuck in the airlock almost got him sliced and diced and served on rice. He thought that it was just a minor change. He was going to have to be on guard and rethink what he thought were minor and major changes from now on.

“Holy shit!” Gasped Keith. “Are you okay?” He crouched down beside Lance, looking kind of terrified. “We need to get you to the med bay right now!”

“Not an option.” Hissed Lance. “The whole castle is malfunctioning. Just…” Lance took his shirt off and handed it to Keith. “Rip this up and bandage my arm.”

“... Right.” Keith quickly tore Lance’s shirt into strips and bandaged up his arm. Then his chest.

Lance felt like his arm was on fire, but he preferred to getting it sliced over the concussion. The two paladins then quickly went to find the other paladins and then they went to the Princess. Of course she was driving the castleship towards an imploding star under the delusion that it’s Altea.

Thankfully, just like last time, Coran was able to get through to her and Allura was able to let the Alfor AI go. With that out of the way, Lance was quickly shoved back into another healing pod for his injuries.

When Lance stumbled out he was surprised to see Keith was there waiting for him. He looked kind of embarrassed. Lance just smiled at him. He knew how prickly Keith was. Especially at the start of Voltron.

“Aw, did you come to check on me?” Asked Lance. “I’m flattered.”

“You could have died.” Said Keith quietly. He almost looked ashamed. “That thing could have killed you… Fuck it was going to attack me and you took the blow. Why? Why would you do that?”

Lance gave him a confused look. “Why wouldn’t I? Keith, we’re a team. In war, there are no lone wolves. We have to stick together or we all die.” He patted Keith on the shoulder. “Besides, this is the start of the war for us. If you’re worried about paying me back, you can do that by having my back on the battlefield. Besides I know if I have to, I’d die for any one of you guys in a heartbeat.”

“What?” Keith looked even more confused. “What the hell Lance? You shouldn’t have been in danger like that in the first place!”

Lance couldn’t help but admire that passion burning in Keith’s eyes. He put his hand on Keith’s shoulder and smiled at him. “This is war. Look, I’m not going to deliberately put myself in danger, but I will do whatever it takes to protect the team no matter what form that takes. I believe in Voltron. I believe in the Princess.” He yawned a little and stretched. “Man, even after stepping out of one of those pods I feel dead tired. See you at breakfast Keith. I’m heading to bed.”

“Okay… Um, bye Lance… and um… Thanks.” He muttered. “You really are a selfless guy.”

Hearing that made Lance chuckle a little. Keith was one to talk. He still remembered Keith almost committing suicide just so the rebels could take a shot at a Galra battleship. Lance picked up his shirt, created from a machine that Pidge had rigged up, and grinned at him.

“Me? Nah, I’m just a boy from Cuba.” He tossed the shirt over his shoulder and gave Keith a little salute. “See you around Keith. I’m getting a drink and then going to bed.”

As he left Keith standing there he looked down at himself. He now had scars on his chest and his bicep. He didn’t have those before. This was new. He’d need to think about the consequences of his actions more carefully. At least now he had taken Sendak out of the equation. One less thing to worry about. With Sendak dead he just needed to worry about Haggar, Zarkon, and Lotor. So he was basically going to have to try and commit familicide, or was it still considered regicide or even tyrannicide? Fuck definitions. A whole family was going to die to insure that Allura would live.


	6. Bonding moments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And like the season one is over with. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

After the drama of almost crashing into a damn imploding star, there was some more down time as Pidge combed through the memories they retrieved from Sendak. In a few days they would find the memories they would need for the location of a secret Galra transport hub. This one was kind of big. They would find out a whole bunch of things. Such as the way the Galra are harvesting quintessence and Zarkon being the previous black paladin. Allura would also get captured by the Galra of course and they would save her… but then the whole wormhole separation thing would happen. At least he could see the mermaids again. That was pretty neat.

Until then Lance was going to try and split his time between training, socializing, and Allura. He had to keep up his social life so his friends wouldn’t think there was anything weird going on with him while still getting stronger for her.

Speaking of Allura, he had managed to catch the princess while she was on the bridge. It was a little odd, but he felt that she had a little more respect for him after some of the things he had been through in such a short amount of time. It did feel a little insulting, but it was understandable.

“So, what are you doing?”

“Nothing much, just plotting out our next course of action.” She said calmly. “There are a few planets we can liberate with minimal effort. They might not be major trade points or anything, but it’s something.”

Lance nodded in agreement. “Any planet freed from the Galra’s rule is a win in my books.”

“Naturally.” Allura ran her fingers across the map for a few seconds before she stopped and sighed. “Lance… I don’t think I said this earlier but I want to apologise for everything that happened the other day.”

“There is no need for you to apologise. You did nothing wrong.”

“I put the whole team in harm’s way.” She said. “I could have killed us all, and then where would the universe be? Zarkon would have won.”

“But you didn’t and he didn’t.” Said Lance reassuringly. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Honestly.”

“But you almost died. Again.”

Lance shrugged. “Allura, this is war. If I die I die. I believe in Voltron, but most of all I believe in you… Allura, if I didn’t believe in you I wouldn’t be here right now. Your fighting spirit and belief in a better universe is what keeps me going.”

Hearing that made Allura blush a little and looked away from him, but she was smiling. “Thank you Lance. You always seem to know what to say… I’m glad you are here.”

“I’m glad I’m here too. You are a much more beautiful leader than Zarkon. Though he might be able to win me over with his looks if he wore a flower crown.”

Allura laughed at the notion. “That sounds ridiculous.”

“Well he is ridiculous.” He smiled at her and had to actively stop himself from trying to reach out and touch her face. Instead he just grinned at her. “Well, if you ever need me you know I’ll be around. See you later Princess.”

“Goodbye Lance.”

Lance headed down towards the training room. He wasn’t surprised to see Keith in there going his own training. Lance just smiled a little at that and shrugged off his jacket. He then went about doing his own warm up. Just some sit ups, push ups and a few laps around the room. After that Lance was going to do some weights.

This was going to hurt his hands a lot. He didn’t have the callos’ that he had in the future. So he was going to have to work hard. He’d start off small, something light and then he would easily be able to do a few reps with. He grabbed a light weight dumbbell and started to do his workout routine in a quiet corner of the room.

He was kind of annoyed that he was only able to do about 5 reps using the 6 kobok weights. Lance still had no idea how much a kobok weighed in human terms. But he knew by the time the castleship blew up he could easily do 20 reps using 22 kobok weights.

After a few minutes Keith walked over to him. “Um hey…”

“Hey. What’s up?”

“Um, just training…”

Lance smiled a little at him. “Just training huh?” He forgot how socially awkward Keith was back in the beginning. “You’re doing good.”

“Yeah… So you’re doing weights?”

Lance nodded. “Yep. Gotta get stronger if I wanna keep fighting.”

“You’re working pretty hard…”

“Says the guy that spends all his spare time in here.”

“That is…” Keith sighed a little, looking kind of embarrassed. “Yeah, that’s fair… Um, so what are you doing after this?”

Lance almost dropped his dumbbell. This kind of emotional development didn’t happen for a few more missions. Hell, not until after the whole Blade of Mamora thing. “Oh um, dinner and then hanging out with Hunk and Pidge. Why?”

“No reason…” Muttered Keith. “I just thought if you were going back to the training room we could train together or something…”

Lance was kind of surprised. Keith wanted to hang out with him? This was one hell of a development. Should he be encouraging this kind of development so soon? It could really save the team a lot of difficulty, especially when Shiro eventually dies and Keith has to become the black paladin.

“Look, you already have plans so don’t feel like you have to-”

“Join us.” Said Lance. “We’re going to mess around with some of the Altean things to see what makes them tick.”

“Oh um…”

“If you want to hang out with us we’ll be in the common room.” Said Lance with a smile. “We’d all love it if you would spend some time with us Mr lone wolf.”

***

After dinner that evening Keith wasn’t really sure what to do. He wanted to train, but Lance had invited him to hang out with the rest of the team… Was Shiro included in this? He wasn’t sure. Soon everyone had finished eating and Keith was left alone poking at his food goo.

That was until Shiro sat next to him with a H2O pouch. “Okay, something’s up. What is it?”

“Huh? Nothing…”

“Keith…”

He sighed a little and stuck his spook into a large blob of green food goo. “I don’t know… Lance asked me to go and hang out with him, Pidge, and Hunk…”

“That sounds really good.” Said Shiro. “But I feel like there is a but coming…”

“But I don’t know…”

“This could be a really good bonding moment for you and the other paladins. I know how hard it is for you to get to know people but…”

“I know.” Muttered Keith. “Also I… I don’t really know what I feel towards Lance anymore. I mean, he could have died trying to save me… He saved my life Shiro and… I can’t stop thinking about that look in his eye when he took down that training robot.” That cold look of steely determination… That burning rage behind those eyes… 

Keith did not want to admit it, but that did things to him. Lance did things to him. He had no idea what kind of things Lance had done to him but they made him feel fuzzy inside. It made him take more note of Lance when they were training, or eating, or in the same room… His mind kept drifting towards Lance

“Yeah, he really did save your life back there. I had a look at the security footage.” Said Shiro. “No hesitation in that moment.”

“Yeah… If he hadn't pushed me out of the way then… I really could have died…”

“But he did and you didn’t.” He ruffled Keith’s hair and smiled kindly at him. “Go and hang out with everyone. I’ll be over in a few minutes to see what you guys are up to.”

“... Okay.” Keith got up, put his plate away, and headed to the common room. Hunk and Pidge were still tinkering with some kind of Altean console. Lance was laying out on the lounge just watching them. Keith sat by him. 

“Hey Keith.” Said Pidge. “Need something?”

“Um, just wanted to see what you guys were doing…”

Pidge nodded and adjusted her glasses. “Intergalactic TV. We are trying to find out what are kid shows and what are alien porn.”

“... Seriously?”

“It’s mostly alien news.” Said Lance. He sat up and stretched. “Maybe we will see some stuff on the news about us?”

Hunk shrugged. “Probably not buddy. We haven’t really done anything that the galaxy at large would know about…”

“Give it some time and they will start making Voltron merchandise.” Said Lance.

“Is it bad that I think that’s kind of cool?” Asked Hunk. “I’d love to have a little mini Yellow to put in my room. Maybe a yellow plushy?”

“I’d be down to get Green as a toy.” Said Pidge.

Lance laughed. “Yeah, that would be cool… Man, can’t believe people merchandise war stuff…”

“They always have.” Said Pidge.

“I guess…” Muttered Lance. “... So, what are you guys fighting for? Like, I know we are all fighting to save the universe, but I once read in a book that you are a better fighter if you have something you’re fighting for. Like a person or an ideology. Something like that.”

Pidge shrugged as she looked through her tool box. “Pretty obvious what I’m fighting for. I’m getting my family back no matter what.”

Hunk thought for a moment. “I guess if I have to choose something other than saving the whole universe I guess I’m fighting for you guys. Fighting for my friends and people like-”

“Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.” Said Pidge in a sing song voice.

Hunk almost dropped his screwdriver. “W-what? No? Maybe…” The others chuckled and Keith cracked a small smile. “W-well there is no need to ask Lance what he’s fighting for… or should I say who?”

Keith frowned a little and looked over at the blue paladin. Lance was just smiling and shrugging. “Well, I don’t make it a secret. I mean, I am in love with them. Hell, I’d die for them a thousand times just for them.”

“... Who?” Asked Keith curiously.

Pidge snorted. “It’s pretty obvious Keith. Lance is in love with the Princess.”

Lance grinned and shot her some finger guns. “Yep. Hit the nail right on the head there Pidge. No matter what happens. Even if the Princess hated me I would do anything for her. To me Allura is my everything.”

For some reason hearing Lance declare is love so openly and completely for Allura didn’t sit well with Keith. He felt a strange knot forming in his chest that was completely different from the strange fuzzy feeling he got when he thought about Lance lately. He kind of felt disappointed and even rejected. Which was weird because he hadn’t asked Lance anything that would warrant him to reject anything.

“Anyway, what about you?” Asked Lance. “What are you fighting for Keith?” 

Keith shrugged. “I don’t really know… I kind of just got stuck in a lion and now I’m here…” He didn’t really know what he was fighting for besides saving the universe. He didn’t really have a family anymore. Voltron was kind of a pseudo family to him. Apart from that the only one he really could really say he would fight for was Shiro. But Shiro was already with him. He didn’t really have to fight to get Shiro back.

Lance just shrugged. “Hey man, don’t sweat it. It’s just the start of the war. Maybe you’ll find yourself a cute alien you want to fight for. Like Hunk.”

“Hey!” Whined Hunk. “I’m pretty sure that Allura is also an alien.”

“Very true.”

“HA! Got it!” Pidge slammed down a panel and the TV turned on. There were lots of colours and weird looking swirls playing on the TV. Pidge grinned and happily waved her arms in front of it. “Now it’s time for everyone’s favourite game show; Porn or Kids show?”

They spent a few hours doing that and Keith actually found that he was enjoying himself. Hanging out with the other paladin’s was pretty nice. Though they had to shut down their game when Shiro came in. Shiro probably wouldn’t have approved of their activity. Still, while this was all nice, he still felt kind of sad when he looked at Lance. That sadness slowly turned to frustration. He didn’t understand why he felt this way when he looked at Lance. It was so weird.

***

A few days later Lance knew he was going to meet the merpeople again soon. They got information from Sendak’s memories and found the location of a secret Galran transport hub. Lance kept his mouth shut and just let the events play out as they should. The only thing he felt was a little weird was that Keith was very snippy with him on the mission. 

Keith actually told him to fuck off when walked off this time. Lance couldn’t tell if this was progress because Keith actually spoke up when he was pissed off, or if it was a sign he shouldn’t have messed with the timeline. Keith was weird.

But they didn’t have time to worry about that. Allura got captured by the Galra. Lance knew what was going to happen, but he was still worried for her. Hell, he was worried for the whole team. Despite knowing the outcome a battle was always going to be it was nerve wracking. 

The moment he saw Zarkon appear he wanted to blast that fucker into space, but that would just have to hang back and shoot down Galra ships while Keith confronted him. It was then that they would find out that Zarkon possessed the black bayard and was the original black paladin.

Of course everyone was shocked and Lance had to fane shock and surprise. Thankfully Shiro swooped in and saved Keith in the nick of time and everyone flew back to the castleship to escape. The spy disabled the barrier generator and they could escape through a wormhole. He braced himself as Haggar’s lightning hit it and sent the lions scattering across the universe.

Lance opened his eyes just in time to see the frozen surface of the ice planet before he and Hunk crashed through and sunk down into the watery depths.


	7. Ulaz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance is starting to wonder if he's messing up the timeline too much... Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

It didn’t take long for Hunk and Lance to end up following Florona back to the planet’s capitol to speak with Queen Luxia. Once again instead of just helping them right away they went on about throwing them a wonderful feast. Lance grinned and put up a front. He couldn’t let them know that he knew about the Bauk worm that was mind controlling everyone.

So he just enjoyed the entertainment and tried to hit it off with the mer ladies. Of course they giggled and some of them flirted back with him. Hunk seemed to relax a bit when he saw Lance acting like his flirty self.

“Feeling better?” He asked.

Lance grinned. “Of course I am. Seriously Hunk, look… Mer people. Who wouldn’t be freaking out about this. I mean, there had to be some kind of mer people out here, right? It’s crazy man. I’m like, living out a childhood dream of meeting mer people.”

“Ha, well that’s true. Just glad you seem to be relaxing a bit, even when we have to get back to the castleship.”

Lance just shrugged him off. “No worries. I’m sure this will all work out.”

After the feast Lance wandered off to his room for the evening. It took a bit of time, but eventually he got kidnapped by the freedom fighters. They shoved a jellyfish on his head and went about pleading their case to him. It was all white nose to him.

“Hey, Plaxum.” He said. “I’ll help you guys out, but it’s not Queen Luxia that’s hypnotized the populace. It’s this giant worm in the Baku gardens. A baku worm if you would.”

Blumfump swam up close to him and jabbed one of their tentacles into Lance’s chest. “And how would you know? Have you seen this worm?”

Lance sighed in frustration, then he realized something, they were aliens. They didn’t know how humans worked. “You see, some humans, which is what I am, have this ability to kind of see bits and pieces of the future when put into certain situations. It’s called umm… Deja vu.”

“Deja vu?” Questioned Swirn. “Sounds fancy. Do all humans posses this… deja vu?”

“Very few.” Said Lance. “It’s kind of stigmatized and you’re kind of seen as a little crazy for having it or using it… So it’s all very hushed up. Hunk, my friend, doesn’t have it. As far as I know I’m the only human that does. Anyway, when we got here I used my deja vu to see that there was this huge Baku worm in the Baku gardens that’s using your people as food.”

The three mer looked horrified. “It’s doing what?!” Asked Plaxum. “That’s just… And we thought it was the Queen…”

“How can we trust him?” Asked Blumfump. “It seems a little too… convenient…”

Lance shrugged. “Believe me or not I’m still going to have to fight a giant worm.”

There was a lot of back and forth for a bit before the group settled on a plan. Fighting Hunk always sucked, but Lance had to knock some sense into him. Together they fought the Baku worm and eventually killed it. Queen Luxia was extremely thankful for freeing them from the Baku’s mind control.

“I want to thank you all for what you’ve done. You’ve freed my people, and I will do all I can to protect that freedom. I vow to be the voice of my people.” She turned to the freedom fighters. “I beg of you to help. Will you be my advisors?”

Blumfump nodded. “Of course, your highness. I have some great ideas. Have you ever heard of electricity?”

“And I wanted to personally thank you, Lance.” She kissed his cheek. “Now I can remove this thing.” Plaxum removed the jellyfish from her head. She was very pretty. Lance still only had eyes for Allura, but he had to admit that she was quite good looking.

Hunk cleared his throat. “Queen Luxia, the reason we came here in the first place was to see if you could help us find our friends.”

“Of course.” She said. “It has been many years since we have activated the energy beacon, but perhaps it is time to rebuild our civilization and reach out to interstellar travelers once again. Activate the energy beacon!” The beacon soon activated and was quickly picked up by Pidge who flew to them in the Green Lion. “There is a mer-cat in our system that appears to be heading our way.”

Hunk looked at the screen and grinned. “It’s the Green Lion!”

Lance laughed and patted his back. “See, Hunk? I told you they could help us. Now, the next time I go swimming after a mermaid, I hope you won’t be complaining the whole time.”

“Lesson learned.”

***

After returning to the ship and having a debriefing about what happened, Hunk was shocked to learn about the castleship being stuck in a wormhole, Pidge getting thrown out into some garbage cluster and bothe Shiro and Keith getting tossed onto some desolate moon. Oh, and Shiro was now in a healing pod because he was injured pretty badly. Lance had to pretend he was shocked.

The team went to check on Shiro. He seemed almost peaceful in that recovery pod. Lance couldn’t help but feel some semblance of regret for making Shiro relive this event. But like everything that he had allowed to happen, this was all meant to be. He couldn’t change things up too much.

Everyone was rather upset that Shiro was in a recovery pod. Especially Keith. Actually, Keith seemed more upset than he did the first time. Lance had no idea why. Was their conversation different on the moon this time? He wasn’t even sure what they talked about the first time.

However, Lance couldn’t worry too much about that. He needed to concentrate on the next major battle ahead of them. That would be when they meet the Olkari. Fighting that super-weapon cube was going to be a bitch. Actually, that was going to be the next on world battle. The next one would be fighting some other RoBeast. That meant meeting Ulaz. Which would be interesting. But that was still a few days away. Time travel was hard.

For a while Lance wondered if he should go and do some training, but after saving a planet from an evil mind controlling worm, he decided to just go to the observation deck and chill. He deserved to take a day off every once in a while.

What did surprise him though was that Keith was also sitting in the observation deck. He looked surprised to see him but just nodded. Lance nodded back at him and sat on the opposite side of the lounge. The stars were beautiful.

“... Lance?”

He looked down at Keith. “Yeah? What’s up?”

“... Never mind. It’s nothing.”

Lance pouted. “Aw, I thought you were going to be nice and apologize for telling me to fuck off before you went off on your own.”

“... Okay, I’m sorry for doing that.”

“Good.” There was an awkward silence between the two of them that seemed to last an eternity before Lance caved. “Well you seem to be in deep thought there mullet. What’s up?”

“I’m just thinking…” Said Keith. “When Shiro and I were on that moon he said something to me that I couldn’t disagree with more.”

“Yeah?”

“He said that if anything happens to him that he wants me to lead Voltron.” Admitted Keith. “...I think he’s wrong. I don’t want to lead Voltron. I can’t lead Voltron… I’m not a leader.”

“Well who do you want to lead Voltron?” Asked Lance. “Allura?”

Keith gave Lance a dead serious look. “You. I think you should lead Voltron.”

Lance froze in shock before he burst out laughing. “Good one Keith. You really had me going… Wait, you’re serious? Why?”

“Have you seen yourself?” Asked Keith. “You’re so much more capable than the rest of us. You’re one of the strongest fighters we have. You do joke a bit, but you stick to your guns and you’re someone we could all look up to.”

Lance was shocked to hear Keith say that. He needed to put a stop to this right now. “Yeah, nope. Not gonna happen. I’m no leader.”

“But you are Lance! You’re-”

“I’m not the leader Voltron needs.” Said Lance calmly. “Besides, it doesn’t matter what I want. The lions choose their paladins. If it ever comes down to choosing who takes Shiro’s place it won’t be up to you or me. It will be up to Black. Black will look inside us and see what kind of person we are. They will judge us and they will decide who is worthy… And all my money is on you.”

“Why?” Asked Keith in confusion. “Why would you believe in someone like me?I’m the lone wolf after all… I’m too aggressive, I don’t work well with others and-”

“You’re overthinking it.” Said Lance. He leaned back in his seat and looked at a passing comet. “But if you are freaking out about it, let’s make a promise to each other.”

“Yeah?”

“If I become the Black Paladin in the future, you have to swear your loyalty to me and follow me just as well as you would Shiro, and if you become the Black Paladin I’ll back you up and keep your aggressive ass in check.”

Keith was quiet for a few seconds before he chuckled. “Okay. Sure… Um, thanks Lance, for believing that I could be the Black paladin.”

“I know you can be the Black paladin. Never doubt that.”

***

The next day Shiro awoke from his pod and relayed to the team his vivid memory of how he escaped the Galra with the help of a Galra scientist called Ulaz. He was hooked up to some machine while Pidge was looking through the data on his Galra arm. Allura’s reaction was to be expected.

“You know we cannot trust him.” She said.

“Your father must have trusted them once. Zarkon was the original Black Paladin, wasn’t he?” Asked Shiro.

Allura made a dismissive sound. “That was a long time ago.”

“Why didn’t you just tell us the truth about Zarkon?”

“I wanted to protect you from the dark history of the paladins so that you would have a chance to bond with your lions on your own!” Snapped Allura. “You are the Black Paladin now, not Zarkon!”

“Yeah, well the Black Lion may have a different take on the matter.” Grumbled Shiro.

“Wait a second!” Said Pidge. “I think I see it now. Some repeating numbers in all this Galra code. They are coordinates!” She quickly typed some things into the console. “They lead here; the Thaldycon system.”

“Then that is where we are heading.” Said Shiro.

They verbally fought some more and eventually arrived in some wasteland. Which caused some more in fighting. As the team bickered, Lance quietly slipped out and headed down to where Ulaz was. He had been preparing for this. Ulaz was a good Galra and didn’t need to die. Lance had been working on something that could possibly help Ulaz when the RoBeast attacked. Hopefully it would work, but he needed to give it to him first. He quickly found the Galra carefully wandering the halls. He whistled to get his attention.

The Galra instinctively got ready to battle. Even taking out and activating his mamora blade. Lance just rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. You coming or what? Damn Blades…”

“You know of the Blades?”

“Well I know your name is Ulaz. Move it fuzzy before you get picked up as an intruder and-” an alarm went off. “-now everyone knows you are here…”

Needless to say, despite Shiro telling Allura and everyone else that this was Ulaz, the one who saved him, she was not having a Galra on her ship. Ulaz just scoffed at her.

“If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead already.”

“Are your Galra threats supposed to win my trust?” Asked Allura. “I’m not trying to win your trust. I’m trying to win a war.”

Shiro shook his head and looked at Ulaz. “When you released me, you also mentioned that there were others working with you.”

“Yes. We are called the Blade of Mamora.”

“Uh, others?” Asked Hunk. “Are they here?”

Lance patted Hunk’s back. “Probably not here buddy. The base is probably hidden somewhere else. I doubt a secret Galra group of rebels is going to just give us their coordinates. It’s probably somewhere else.”

Ulaz nodded. “Yes. Our base is hidden. Now that I know it is Shiro that has come, you are welcome to our outpost. It lies dead ahead.”

“Behind all the xanthorium clusters?” Asked Pidge.

Ulaz shook his head. “No. Right in front of it, in a hidden pocket of space-time.”

Allura scoffed at the idea. And another argument got underway about the Galra and if Ulaz could be trusted. As they talked Lance just rolled his eyes and slipped a small device into Ulaz’s hand. The Galra gave him a weird look and Lance just shrugged.

“For when things get difficult out there. Should help you out in a pinch. Just hope your space suit has jetpacks.” Ulaz nodded and with the slightest movement of his hands the small device was gone.

The team continued to talk about the validity of space-time while bringing up images on the screen. Hunk was talking about tacos and calzones when describing what it looked like.

“Welcome to the Blade of Marmora Communications Base Thaldycon.” Said Ulaz. “Now, if you’ll free me, I need to send a message to the leadership. They need to know I have made contact with Voltron.”

“I trust him.” Said Lance calmly. “Look, you can’t expect everyone that’s Galra to worship the space Zarkon flies through. There’s bound to be a few Galra out there that want him gone. Right Ulaz?”

Ulaz nodded. “We thought expanding the Galra Empire would bring stability. We learned too late, a tyrant doesn’t seek stability, only power. With our members working on the inside, planning coordinated attacks with Voltron, we may finally have a chance.”

As they talked it seemed like everyone was starting to trust Ulaz, just a little bit. But Lance knew that this wasn’t going to last. He readied himself to make a mad dash to Blue as soon as the RoBeast appeared. As if on cue the RoBeast appeared and threw everything into chaos once again. 

Ulaz quickly gave Shiro the instructions on how to reach the Blade of Mamora headquarters. He made sure to emphasize that they needed to find out how Zarkon was tracking them before they went there or everything would be in jeopardy.

The fight went about as well as expected with Ulaz sacrificing himself to destroy the RoBeast. Everyone seemed to think that exonerated him of whatever transgressions he might have had for being born Galra. Lance was just hoping that Ulaz actually used what he gave him. He figured that the more Blades that were alive the better. It couldn’t hurt their chances.

Also, he didn’t really mess up the timeline that badly yet. He had met everyone he needed to meet… However, the more he thought about not messing up the timeline he realized that he actually hadn’t met everyone. He didn’t meet Rolo or Nyma yet. Which was really weird because now that he thought about it, he should have met them before they saved Shay… Maybe he had messed up the timeline a little more than he thought...

“We should meet up with the rest of Ulaz’s group, finish what we started.” Said Keith.

“No.” Said Shiro. “We’re not going to the headquarters until we figure out how Zarkon found us. We can’t risk losing the only allies we have in this war!”


	8. Ennui

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The tedium of time travel is starting to weigh in on our boy... and people are noticing... Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Reliving the same main events was weird. It was like watching a rerun of a TV show, but it was pretty much his entire life. Lance had decided to cool it a little with trying to change events. He did kind of kill Sendak and maybe prevented Ulaz from dying. He could have told everyone that it was Zarkon’s connection to Black that was the reason behind Zarkon tracking them, but he wasn’t sure if that would somehow end up with a planet exploding.

So he just let events happen as they should. Not that it was much trouble. He was reliving one of his happier memories of having a spongy spore ball fight with the other paladins instead of making repairs to the ship. He genuinely felt like he was having fun for once. But at the same time it felt kind of hollow. Even when he did manage to peg Keith in the face.

After the decontamination procedure it was discovered that the spores were a distress signal from the Olkari homeworld. The team plotted a course to the planet and Lance wandered off to clear his head.

He quickly found that the observation deck was still one of his favourite rooms on the ship. Just this time it was for contemplating and thinking about what he needed to do to save Allura. He sat on the couch and watched the stars and planets fly by. All he could think of was Allura and how he probably wouldn’t get a third chance if he screwed this up. No matter what happened Allura had to live. Even if in this reality he had to give his own life he would all to ensure that she survived.

He heard the doors woosh open behind him. Lance glanced over for a moment to see Shiro walking in. He nodded when he saw Lance there and sat relatively close to him, but still kind of far. He seemed like he wanted to say something to him. Lance wouldn’t mind. It might be nice to talk to someone with PTSD like him.

“How are you holding up Lance?” He asked.

“Just fine. Why do you ask?”

Shiro looked a little uncomfortable. “I don’t want you to think I’m invading your privacy or anything but… Sometimes I can’t sleep and I go for walks. I sometimes hear things when I walk past your rooms. Hunk snoring, Pidge typing away on her laptop, Keith rolling out of bed… You crying...”

“Wait, Keith rolls out of bed?” That was news to Lance. He was so going to find a way to tease Keith about that later.

“Lance, did you miss the part where I said I could hear you crying?” Asked Shiro.

“... No.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Lance thought for a moment. It would be nice to vent to someone about his problems. Though, he wasn’t sure what he could really say about the crying. After Allura died Lance could hardly remember a day when he didn’t wake up with tear stains on his cheeks and pillow. Then again, he might be able to vent to Shiro in the context of dreams.

“I… I’ve almost died at least twice already.” Said Lance calmly. “I dream terrible things Shiro. I dream of us failing missions, people dying, earth getting invaded, Haggar using space magic to turn the team against each other… and Allura dying. I’m terrified that one day I’m going to wake up and I’m like, 20 years in the future and we win the war, but Allura’s dead.”

“We won’t let that happen.” Said Shiro. “We’re all getting out of this war alive. I promise.”

Lance chuckled a little and looked down at the ground. “You shouldn’t make promises that you can’t keep Shiro… If Allura doesn’t die I feel like one of us will instead… And you know what the scary thing is?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m starting to think that everyone on the team deserves to live more than me, and if it comes down to it I would gladly jump in front of an ion blast if it meant everyone else survived.” This was something he had felt for a long time. He honestly felt that, apart from Shiro, the universe wanted him dead. Hell, Allura did save him after he kind of did die when he sacrificed himself for her. Maybe this was just the survivors guilt talking? He didn’t know.

Shiro put his hand on his shoulder and gave him a stern look. “Lance, you do deserve to live. You are so much more than just the Blue Paladin. You are Lance McClain. There is no one else like you in the universe. You are special. This universe needs you. Who would be the Blue Paladin if you weren’t here?”

Lance shrugged. “Allura?”

“You know she would want you around.” Shiro tried to reassure.

Lance smiled a little and gave Shiro a weary look. “I know… I guess I’m just tired. This war just gets to you some days you know?”

“Yeah, I know…” Shiro had this strange look on his face that Lance couldn’t really decipher. He seemed confused. Maybe a little… afraid? That didn’t seem right.

Lance stood up and stretched. “Well, I’m gonna grab a snack before hitting the training room. See you later Shiro.”

“Yeah um… See you around Lance…”

***

Something was wrong with Lance. Shiro knew there had to be. He might have had the body of a teenager, but the way he looked at him and talked to him… It was like that teenager was a verterain. Someone who had seen more battles than he would care to admit. He also just seemed older. It was really, really unnerving.

After mulling over these thoughts for a few minutes, Shiro went to find Coran. The Altran was on the bridge, happily looking at star charts. “Ah, number one. Nice to see you again. Is there something I can do for you?”

“Yeah… There’s something off with Lance…”

“Ah… Yes… Um, what about him is off?”

Shiro shrugged. “He just… He isn’t really acting like a teenager. He’s… I know war changes people but he looks like he’s been to war a few dozen times and come back as a casualty. Is there any chance that the pods might have malfunctioned and done something to his brain?”

Coran frowned and thought for a moment. “Well, perhaps… I doubt it would do anything drastic to him but… I can have another look.”

“Thanks. Please do.” Shiro left the bridge and headed down to the training room to see what Lance was doing. He went to the control room for the training room to see what exactly Lance was doing. Shiro still couldn’t really read what some of the things the console was monitoring, but he felt that at least one of them was monitoring heartbeats.

He looked down at Lance and was both impressed and a little concerned to see the young paladin beating up a punching bag. After that he assumed as a set Lance would pause and flex his hands. After doing his third set Lance stepped away to properly tape up his hands. It gave Shiro a chance to use the cameras to zoom in on the bag. As it swung around he could clearly see that it was stained with blood. Lance was punching the bag so hard he was ripping the skin off his knuckles.

He was going to confront Lance with that information later that evening, but at dinner, Hunk got to it first.

“Hey man, what happened to your hands?” He asked. 

Lance looked down at his bloody and bandaged knuckles and shrugged. “Training got a bit too heated. I grazed my knuckles a little.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Asked Keith.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Said Lance. “Just a little banged up bit I can still hold a gun. I’m good.”

Shiro didn’t get much of a chance to confront him further as they would reach their destination early the next morning and everyone needed to sleep right after dinner. Allura’s orders. You didn’t go against her orders.

***

Another interaction that went by the numbers. The Olkari were thankful for their help and Pidge had unlocked a new power for the Green Lion. Lance wandered back to his room once they got back to the castleship. He collapsed onto the mattress and just felt numb.

Being numb was just so… He didn’t know what to do anymore. The battles felt so mundane. He shook his head and closed his eyes. He needed to focus on Allura. That was all that mattered. She was all that mattered. All the fake smiles and repetition would eventually be worth it. Maybe. He hoped.

Just to see Allura smile and laugh because of him… If it came down to it he would lay down his life for her in this timeline. Though if he had to do that at some point he hoped it would be after they sorted out the whole clone situation with Shiro.

He punched the wall in frustration. That was going to happen soon. Shiro was going to die. He had no idea how to avoid it. He didn’t know how to save the original Shiro or what that would do to the timeline. He wanted to save as many people as possible, but at the same time he didn’t know how.

Lance took a few shaky breaths as he tried to calm himself. He needed to focus on Allura. She was his everything. She was the most important thing to him. No one else mattered. Well, they did matter, but Lance trusted that they could hold their own against the Galra. They always did. He had to save Allura. Sure this need was definitely bordering on obsessive, but he didn’t care. After everything he had been through she was the only thing driving him forward.

He heard a knock at his door and quickly sat up. Lance could feel his cheeks damp with tears and he quickly wiped face dry. He hoped that Allura might have been at his door, but it wasn’t. It was Keith.

“Oh hey man. What’s up/”

“I um, I just wanted to check in on you.” Said Keith. “You seemed kind of off during the mission. Which is kind of weird since you’re usually so interested in other alien cultures and stuff.”

Lance shrugged. Time to lie his way out of everything, again. “Just… I know the planet was different from earth, but it… It felt pretty similar. I guess I just felt a little nostalgic for it, you know? I miss earth and I want to get home soon. Like, what if the Galra take an interest in Earth? Then what?”

Keith frowned a little and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I guess that could happen… But Zarkon seems preoccupied trying to get the black lion from Shiro.”

“Yeah, true…” Lance sighed a little and leaned against the doorframe. “So um… Anything else you want to talk about?”

“I just wanted to make sure that you were okay…” Muttered Keith. “I know that I’m not the best talker or anything like that, and I know we aren’t really friends or anything like that so you probably don’t want to talk to me.”

“I consider you a friend.”

Keith looked surprised. “Really? Um, anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I’m here to listen. If you ever need to vent… You know?”

“Thanks Keith.” Said Lance. A few seconds later Keith kind of gave him an awkward nod and went to leave. Lance knew he told himself that he wasn’t going to interfere too much with the timeline but couldn’t help himself. “Your knife.”

Keith stopped. “Hmm?”

“Your knife. It um, It has a symbol on it that’s similar to that sword that Ulaz had doesn’t it?”

Keith frowned a little and nodded. “Yeah it um… It does…”

“Where did you get that knife anyway?”

“It um… It’s just something from my past… It’s my mum’s knife.”

Lance nodded, knowing just how true it was. “Yeah, are you kind of worried about it?”

“I mean, I guess I am a little. This looks like some kind of Galra knife.” He muttered. “I don’t know much about my mother so I… I just don’t know.”

Lance shrugged. “Well you have three options; one, your mum just found a cool knife on earth because she was like some kind of cool archaeologist type person. Two, your mum was part of some alien resistance out there and she took a souvenir from a Galra she killed… Three, you are half Galra.”

Saying that seemed to have a pretty bad effect on Keith. He looked like someone had punched him in the gut. Which was fair. They were fighting the Galra. They were the enemy. The only kind of friendly Galra they had met so far was Ulaz.

“But who cares?” Asked Lance. “Like, if you’re all human or half alien or half galra, you’re still Keith. Right? Nothing is going to change that. Especially in my eyes.”

“Really?” Asked Keith quietly.

Lance nodded. “Yep, but if you have some cool, secret alien ability like… You can shoot lasers out of your eyes or make things levitate then I might treat you differently.”

That actually got Keith to smile. “Thanks Lance… Though if I am somehow Galra I’m pretty sure Allura will launch me into space without my space suit.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Yeah well fuck Allura and her space racisim.” That actually seemed to surprise Keith a lot. “What? Just because I love her doesn’t mean I can’t criticize her for holding toxic views. The Galra Empire are our enemies. Not the Galra people… Look, if it turns out that you have some Galra blood in you or some other alien DNA in you from some species that Allura doesn’t like I’ll have your back.”

“Seriously?” Asked Keith in shock. “You would do that for me?”

Lance nodded. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I? Keith, you’re still you no matter who your parents are. You’re the Red Paladin of Voltron, but more than that. You are Keith Kogane.”

“Thanks Lance… That really means a lot to me.”

“Think nothing of it… Thanks for checking on me.”

The corners of Keith’s mouths twitched slightly as he put his knife away. “No problem… We’re a team. I’ll um… I’ll see you at breakfast.”

“See you at breakfast.” Lance went back into his room and closed the door, locking it behind him. He let out a shaky break as he tried to hold himself together. He felt like his body was suddenly exhausted. 

Lance crumpled to the floor and did his best to try and keep everything together. He was tired. Time travel was hard. He didn’t want to mess up anything too badly. If he did then everything he did would have been for nothing. He just needed to take a few deep breaths and think towards the future. He had a little bit of down time before they got attacked by Zarkon again. Things would be fine. Everything was fine. Everything he was doing was for Allura.


	9. Run away lions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this would be episodes 5-6 of season 2. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Smile. Just smile and pretend that everything is okay. That’s all Lance needed to do. He was the goofball of the team… It was so hard. He had forgotten how stressful it was to fight the Galra every damn day. He felt like his younger body was going to give out.

Thankfully Coran caught a case of the slipperies which meant one thing in Lance’s mind; pool time. Well, at least pool time after fighting off the Galra, again, but still pool time! He liked using the pool once he figured out the gravity thing.

He had considered staying around the bridge, but if he did that then Keith would be trapped in the elevator. Which he didn’t want because he wanted Keith to back him up when they had to fight the Galra again. So there Lance was, standing around in his blue swimming trunks by the elevator, waiting for Keith. He sure was taking his time.

***

Allura had talked about a pool, and Keith wanted to go. He hadn’t ever really been much of a pool person or a swimming person in general, but it sounded like the most relaxing thing on the ship. And he could float… Kind of. He’d be fine if he hung around the edge.

He rounded the corner and saw Lance. Keith couldn’t help but freeze up a little as his heart started to race. All that training was paying off for him. Lance’s body had toned out nicely. He was even starting to get some well defined muscles on his stomach and chest… His chest… where there was a very distinct claw scar. That he made Lance get...

“Um hey…” He muttered. “Are you going to the pool too?”

Lance nodded. “Yep. After all the bullshit going on with Zarkon I just want to relax.”

“Yeah, you’re big on swimming, right?”

Lance nodded again and pressed the elevator button. “Yeah. Lived right on the beach when I was younger… It was beautiful… But my parents decided that they needed to move back to the old farm when I was in middle school. But by then I was getting ready to join the Garrison so it didn’t matter too much to me.”

Keith nodded a little. It must have been nice to have a family like Lance’s. Hell, everyone had a family to go back to on earth apart from him. Shiro was his family, but he didn’t know what their relationship would be like when all this was over. Shiro would probably try and make up with Adam. He really hoped that he would. Adam was a little stuck up, but the two of them seemed really happy together.

He would probably end up fading away into obscurity and go live among the stars. Maybe if he really was half alien like he suspected then maybe he could live with whatever species his mother was. Maybe she was still out there? Probably not, but it was nice to dream.

“Sounds nice.” Said Keith. “I haven’t actually been to a beach before.”

“Really?”

“Nope. I don’t think I’ve even been to an alien beach before.”

Lance chuckled a little. “Well, I guess we’ll have to fix that when we get back to earth… Or maybe the next planet?”

Keith smiled a little. “Yeah, maybe the next pl-” The elevator suddenly lost power. “-what the hell?”

Lance just sighed. “Man, this ship really needs better maintenance… Oh well. Come on Keith, back to back. We’re climbing out.”

So the two of them stood back to back, linked arms, and slowly started to walk up the wall. It was… an experience. He had never really been too weirded out about touching other people, but he could feel his heart racing in his chest when he felt skin contact with Lance. Maybe he was getting sick? He had to be. What other reason was there?

“Can you see a vent or anything?” Asked Lance.

“Huh?”

“A vent.” Reiterated Lance. “With any luck we’ll find a vent and be able to get through that.”

“Right.” Keith quickly looked around and found one. “You mean like that?”

He felt Lance tilt his head back over his shoulder. “... Yeah. That’ll do.”

So with a fair bit of creative gymnastics, the two paladin’s managed to get into the vent, slide down it, and somehow end up at the pool. Much to Keith’s disappointment the pool was somehow located on the ceiling.

“Stupid Altean pools.” He muttered.

Lance shrugged. “Yeah, Altean pools are weird… Maybe there’s some kind of anti gravity thing we have to hit?”

“Maybe… Why can’t anything be like, normal by human standards?”

Lance shrugged. “Eh, human standards are overrated.” Suddenly the castle’s alarm system went off, making both of them jump. “They found us again?”

“...” A strange feeling formed in the pit of Keith’s stomach. Ever since he had met Ulaz he had been questioning if he really was Galra, or had some link to them. He had to. Maybe… Maybe Zarkon was tracing Voltron through him? That had to make sense right? If he was somehow related to Galra then maybe Zarkon could find them and if that was the case then he really needed to leave.

Lance slapped Keith’s back. “Come on. We have to move it. Time to shook some Galra.”

***

After getting fried inside the wormhole generator and everyone freaking out about Zarkon Lance went back to the Altean pool to relax. It didn’t take him long to find and activate the reverse gravity platform so he could actually get to the pool. Altean technology was incredible.

As he floated on his back he wondered if he should try and intercept Allura and Keith when they would try and run away since they both thought they were the reason Zarkon was tracking them. Maybe it would be something he should bring up now? Then they could actually form Voltron and be able to save the citizens of Taujeer faster.

He sighed and ran his hand through the water. He was still trying to figure out when he could be in the same place as Haggar. The first time he could think of was when Shiro dies in a few months time. He didn’t know how he could get to Haggar without completely messing up the plan and exposing himself as some time traveler. He didn’t even know how to save Shiro. Was it even possible to save Shiro? He didn’t know. Lance really wanted to save Shiro, but he never knew how since he didn’t really know how Shiro vanished in the first place.

So as Lance tried to formulate a plan he just let the events of the day happen. Eventually Keith and Allura ran away together and everyone else went to help the Taujeer. They eventually made contact with Allura and Keith again and the two went on and on about how they were being used by Zarkon to track Voltron.

There was only so much Lance could put up with before he eventually snapped. “... Yeah, okay. Fuck this I’m not doing this.” Muttered Lance. “Okay! Listen up! Am I the only one that thinks that maybe Zarkon’s following us through Black? Like, Zarkon’s the only original surviving Paladin. He still has the black bayard. The Lions don’t care if we are objectively good or evil, but as long as we are worthy to pilot them. Black’s bond with Zarkon is still strong. There is no quiznacking way he could be tracking either of you through whatever bullshit you think he is! Keith! Get your lazy, maybe alien ass back to the Red lion or so help me I will fly Blue to you and drag you back by your stupid mullet! Same goes for you Princess!”

 _“But Lance, the lion’s can’t reach their Paladin’s from so far away.”_ Said Allura. _“There is no way it’s the Black Lion.”_

Lance felt his face twitch in annoyance and slight rage. He was surrounded by idiots and although he had proven his worth, his ideas were still getting shot down because he was still kind of a goofball.

So Lance just gritted his teeth and went through the whole ordeal and once they saved the people of Taujeer everyone was in agreement that Zarkon was tracking Voltron through Black. All because Red did find Keith and Allura from a great distance and brought them back to the castleship.

“I need to work on my bond with the Black Lion.” Said Shiro. “I… I can’t believe that they still consider Zarkon worthy of… Never mind.”

“It’s okay Shiro.” Said Pidge. “You couldn’t have known.”

“Yeah.” Said Hunk. “Don’t beat yourself up about it.”

Lance felt a little hurt that everyone was ignoring the fact that he had pretty much called it and no one seemed to care, but it was fine. He was just happy that everything had been figured out for now and things were going back to normal. Kind of.

Later that evening he was walking back to his room when he happened to run into Allura. The princess seemed a little embarrassed to see him. He didn’t understand why.

“Lance…” She said. “I… I want to apologize to you personally… You raised valid points about Zarkon tracking us through the Black Lion but I… I didn’t want to believe that one of the lions could have possibly still seen Zarkon as worthy.”

Lance shrugged. “It’s okay Princess… I shouldn’t have yelled at you guys. I guess I was a little frustrated in the heat of battle. You know? I’m just glad it all worked out in the end.”

“That’s true.” She smiled a little at him. “Once again I can’t help but thank you for being able to think clearly… What Keith and I did put the team in danger. We need to work together and deepen our bonds as a team.”

“Voltron isn’t just a team.” Said Lance as he reached out and gently held her hand. “Allura, Voltron is family. A weird, strange, messed up kind of family. But we all work together and no matter what gets thrown our way we’ll work through it together. Okay? No more running away.”

Allura nodded in agreement and squeezed his hand. “No more running away… Voltron is family. No matter what we will figure things out as a team.”

Lance felt his heart swell with adoration for Allura. She was still just as amazing and resilient as ever. Maybe he could speak his mind and maybe flirt a little with her? Let her know that he cared for her as more than just a teammate? He hadn’t really flirted that much with her. At least not as aggressively as he did the first time.

He smiled at her adoringly and gently tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “Goodnight Allura. Sleep well.”

“I will. You too Lance.” She walked away from him, her hand slipping from his.

Lance watched her walk away down the hall and the warmth from her hand finally started to fade from his. This only emboldened his conviction to save her. Allura had so much potential. Way more potential than the previous timeline gave her credit for. He would do anything for Allura. Just like in the timeline before, he would die for Allura.

He went to his room and flopped back onto his bed. Lance sighed heavily and rubbed his hands over his face. He was still so… He wasn’t strong enough to protect Allura. Hell, he didn’t even have enough respect from the team to get them to listen to him when it counted. He really needed to change that. But he had to try and change the timeline and save Shiro.

Lance considered going full conspiracy and getting a corkboard and string like Keith had back at his shack. They were going to hit up the space mall soon anyway so Coran could get teluduv lenses for the castle. Lance wanted to pick up some stuff too. Things he had learnt how to build from what Pidge and Hunk had shown him in the far off future. They had joked about how this tech would have really helped them in a punch during the war, but they couldn’t go back and change that.

Suddenly there was a knock at his door, which surprised Lance. He opened the door and was surprised to see Keith. Now Keith did look embarrassed. Which was weird. Lance was pretty sure that Keith only showed the emotions of rage and emo rage before Shiro vanished. Then it was extreme emo rage. He only started being more emotional after he found Krolia and ageing two years.

“Hey um… So, about earlier…” Muttered Keith. “You really hit the nail on the head there with Black… We should have listened to you before um… We were pretty stupid.”

“Oh, think nothing of it.” Said Lance. “Look, I know you’re feeling weird about your knife and everything and thought you might be the reason Zarkon could follow us but… I know you and Allura thought you were doing the right thing. Just maybe listen to the team goofball every once in a while?”

Keith nodded, though he wouldn’t look him in the eyes. “Yeah… Still, Voltron is meant to be a team. I… I was acting like a lone wolf. I put the team in danger. You couldn’t form Voltron without me and…”

Lance put his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Hey man, I appreciate you telling me this, but shouldn’t you say this to Shiro?”

“I kind of did…” He muttered. “But I felt like I should say it to you too… You kind of got the short end of the stick here. I’m sorry I didn’t back you up…”

“You’re sorry?” Lance was so confused. Keith wasn’t the kind of guy to say sorry.

“I know it isn’t good enough because of what I did but I’m sorry… I split the team. I shouldn’t have done that.”

Lance sighed a little. “Look, it’s fine Keith. We all make mistakes. These things happen. Just try not to split the team again. Okay? In the end we still saved a planet from the Galra and we know how to stop Zarkon from tracking us. Get some sleep. Okay?”

“Yeah, okay. Night Lance.”

He went back into his room and went back to his bed. Lance was very confused about Keith. Everyone else was acting pretty normally around him, but Keith was different. He had to have done something. Maybe it was because he wasn’t being a cocky douche bag and trying to turn everything into a competition? He wasn’t sure.


	10. The wings of a tettertak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mall episode! With a reappearance from the Tetax alien, Madam Whipash. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

With everyone deciding that Shiro needed to form a better bond with the Black Lion, Coran took this opportunity to take the rest of the team to the swap moon. Which was now a space mall. Lance wanted to explore the mall a little more this time and maybe actually pick up something shiny for Allura like he promised that he would last time but never did.

Everyone ended up wandering off in different directions for a while. Lance swiped a handful of gak out of the fountain . It was better to have some money than no money. He wanted to get a corkboard and try to plot out the events that had happened and would happen.

As he walked he happened to walk past the food court and did a double take. He saw Nyma and Rolo. They were just sitting there eating food. They didn’t glance at him. Didn’t even give him a second thought. Why would they? They hadn’t actually met in this timeline. Although they did betray them when they first met, Lance was kind of relieved to know they were still alive in this timeline and not getting hurt by the Galra in some way.

He continued to walk around until he ran into Pidge. Her eyes were shining with excitement. “You will never believe what I found! An Earth store.”

“What? Seriously?”

“Yeah! You have to see it!” She dragged him to the Earth shop. Pidge happily pointed out some of the games they had. “Look! Killbot Phantasm 1! I haven’t seen that in years!”

“Is that the first journey to the depths of the demon sphere?” Asked Lance.

Pidge gasped. “A Gameflux Two with the original power glove that gives you infinite lives if you touch the index finger to the pinky!”

“We have to have this!” Said Lance, hyping them both up and reveling in the nostalgia. The memory of the mall was one of his favourites. The start of the war for them was such an innocent time. 

“We’re going to go and get some money. Come on! Don’t sell that!” Yelled Pidge to the alien shop owner as she pulled Lance away. 

As they ran off to parts unknown in the mann, Lance saw someone out of the corner of his eye. A tall green alien with three orange eyes with an elephant trunk for a nose. She smiled at him and made him freeze in shock. It made him take pause.

“Something up Lance?”

“I um… I need to use the bathroom. Like, really bad. Drank way too many H2O packs at breakfast.”

“Well hurry up. I’ll be at the fountain.”

Lance nodded and quickly looked over to where the alien woman was. She was a little further away from him, but kept looking over her shoulder, like she was asking for him to follow her. So he did. Lance just felt compelled to. The way she looked at him made him feel like she knew who he was.

She quickly turned into a tiny shop and Lance followed her in. He ended up inside a small shop that looked very similar to the tent she had in the future where he first met her. The alien woman was still sitting in her chair and gestured for him to do the same.

He sat down on the stool and crossed his arms. “Madam Whipash?”

“I see you remember me.” She said calmly as she shuffled some cards. “The Tetax are a species that bends time and space as easily as breathing. Those that can make the thaumaturgy are tasked with checking in on and following those we gave our power to. So I am following you, checking in on you.”

“Well you could have told me that your crazy drink would have taken me so far back in time.”

She shrugged. “It wasn’t meant to be this far. Most people jump back a few years. Not close to the beginning of their lives. It’s your subconscious that decides where you end up so I am surprised you ended up here and not at the inciting event.”

Lance shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I just knew I needed to go back to the start. To where it all began to be able to change the future.”

“Perhaps…” Madam Whipash hummed a little and tapped her fingers against the table as she thought. “Well, things have been going well enough for you, right?”

“Yeah, I have been wondering, is it bad if I tell someone about the whole future thing? I was working on the assumption it was bad.”

“Probably best if you don’t mention it if you can help it.” She said. “I do not know much about your species but I doubt that you would be able understand and comprehend the abilities of us Tetax and the practical implications of the Thaumaturgy… Anyway, let us look at your fortune again…” Madam Whipash quickly laid out three space tarot cards. She flipped over the first card. It looked like a butterfly. “Ah, the tettertak. Do you know of this tettertak effect?”

“The wings of a butterfly can cause a tornado over the other side of the world.” Said Lance. “So I guess it’s something similar?”

She nodded. “Yes. A tettertak flaps its wings and a star collapses across the universe. The smallest thing you say or do, down to the timing of your blinks can change the timeline… Anyway, next card.” It was the soul’s card, upside down again. “It seems like you are still going to rekindle that love that you once thought impossible. Your lives are too intertwined to change it now.”

Lance couldn’t help but smile a little. “That’s a relief. I wouldn’t be going through all this if it wasn’t for her.”

“... Indeed.” Madam Whipash turned over the last card. “Three of skulls… That is… This requires a second reading…”

“What? Really? What does it mean?”

She seemed a little hesitant. “Well it doesn’t foretell good fortune. It is the unexpected, the unknown, and bad fortune.” She quickly shuffled her cards and flicked her trunk slightly in what looked like frustration. She fanned her cards out and held them out to him. “Take one and show it to me.”

“... Alright.” Lance picked a card at random and flipped it over.

The alien inhaled sharply. “The dark quintessence card reversed… Pick another.”

“What does it mean?”

“I won’t know the full context of the card until you pick all the cards.” She said calmly. “Now pick another.”

“Fine…” He picked another card.

“The lone raknorg beast… One more card.” She said, though she sounded increasingly worried. Lance picked a card and was surprised to see that it had a picture that looked like Voltron on it. “The legendary hero card… Okay. That’s good.” She made a relieved noise as her trunk twitched.

“So what does this all mean?”

She pointed to the dark quintessence card. “In general this card means evil most vile. Giving into base instincts and absolute depravity. Becoming a monster. However it is upside down and therefore means more like… Do you know of the anti hero archetype? Someone that does bad things but for good reasons?”

“Yeah. I know of them.”

“Well that is kind of what it means. And the lone raknorg beast generally means you will do something morally disturbing on your own of your own volition. Paired with the dark quintessence card it pretty much means you will commit an atrocious action that will possibly hurt and kill many people, but you believe it will be for the greater good… And when paired with the legendary hero card… Well if things keep going how they are now then your fate is sealed. Whatever you have set out to do will succeed.”

Lance let out a huge sigh of relief. Allura was going to live. “Good. As long as Allura survives then that’s all that matters… If I have to get my hands dirty to make that happen then I don’t care. It will be worth it.”

Madam Whipash chuckled a little. “I always find you other species so fascinating. You fixate on one thing so much you never think about the consequences of your actions… Oh well. The next time we meet will be the last.” She said calmly. “I will do one more reading for you then. But I must warn you, like the wings of a tettertak, everything you say or do can completely change the future. Be cautious.”

He nodded a little and quickly left the shop. Though he did turn around to give her a gak. It seemed like the right thing to do, but the shop was gone. The store front had been walled off and an advertisement for leasing the space was there instead. That alien was… She was strange. He needed to get back to Pidge.

***

The group of five screamed as they rode Kaltenecker the cow out of the mall. Varkon, mall cop, was right behind them on his hover scooter. They managed to fly right out of the mall on the back of the cow and Varkon was not pleased.

“Get back here!” He snapped. “Doggone it! You better run! Don’t let me catch you in my jurisdiction again, pirates!”

Hunk watched as Lance laughed and turned around. “Oh, so you can’t follow us outside, huh?” Two seconds later a low hanging beam made contact with Lance’s forehead and he fell off Kaltenerker.

“That’s one for Varkon!” Cheered the pot bellied Galra.

Keith jumped off and dragged Lance back to the pod they took to the mall and then traveled back to the ship to let Allura know they had succeeded in their mission to get the lenses for the teludav.

“We got our lenses!” Said Coran triumphantly as he held up his bag.

Allura smiled and clapped her hands. “Excellent! Now, we can get the teludav up and running.”

“Where’s Shiro?” Asked Keith.

“I’m here.” Said Shiro as he walked onto the bridge. He looked mildly dazed.

“What did you do?” Asked Allura. “Take a nap?”

“Not exactly.” Said Shiro. He looked like he was about to say something when he noticed the cow on the hoverboard. “... Is that a cow?”

Lance smiled and nodded. “Mm-hmm, his name is Kaltenecker.”

Pidge frowned and looked down at the udder between the cow’s legs. “He huh?”

“Don’t assume Kaltenecker’s gender.”

“Moooooo.” Went the cow.

Keith shook his head and turned his attention to Shiro. :So, did you find a way to bond with your lion?”

Shiro nodded. “Yes, and we need to get moving. We’re headed for the Blade of Marmora’s headquarters.”

“I’ll plot a course!” Said Coran.

Pidge and Lance wanted to hook up their game system but realized that they couldn’t. So Pidge went about trying to figure out how to make earth tech work with Altean tech. Keith and Shiro wandered off to do training, and Lance ended up spending time with Hunk.

Which Hunk was a little surprised by. Lance had been a little distant lately with his training regiment, but he was still the fun loving and goofy guy he had always felt he was deep down. They were in the kitchen as Hunk went through the stuff in the cupboards. The food court had inspired him, and with Kaltenecker around this meant he could use milk, make butter, ice cream, cream, and yoghurt. 

“Hey man, do you think we could start milking Kaltenecker like tomorrow, or should we wait a few days?” Asked Hunk.

“Probably a few days.” Said Lance. “They need to settle in first and feel relaxed… So meeting the Blade huh? How do you think it will go?”

Hunk shrugged. “Hopefully good. You never know with those guys. I mean, they are kind of like spies and are super shady to begin with because they are Galra and we have fought them. So I am a little skeptical of them, but if they are really fighting against Zarkon, then I think we need them as allies. I mean, the more the merrier, right?”

Lance chuckled a little but he had a bit of a distant look in his eyes. “Yeah… We need everyone we can get if we are going to defeat Zarkon… Allura’s not going to be happy.”

Hunk nodded in agreement. “Oh yeah, the princess is gonna be pissed about forming any alliance with any Galra. I mean, the did kind of genocide her whole planet and people so… You know, kind of understandable?”

“Yes, but her attitude towards the Galra isn’t a good thing. What happens when we win? Does Voltron subjugate the Galra to make them pay? Sure some of them might deserve it, but the majority of the Galra are just blue collared civilians, like that mall cop guy… Voltron is the defender of the whole universe. Not everyone but the Galra.”

“Well, I agree, but Allura might not.”

Lance sighed. “Man, the princess sure is stubborn. I know she has her reasons but these Galra in the Blade are not the same Galra that hurt her people. Zarkon, Haggar and all those lot are.”

“I know Lance… Hopefully things will work out in the end? I mean, they have so far.”

“I guess…” Lance sighed louder. “Man, this sucks… Allura’s gonna say some racist shit when we meet the Blade.”

“Hopefully we won’t get killed if she says something offensive…”

“We shall see Hunk. We shall see…”


	11. Racist Spacist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how I have been able to do daily updates for this one... Oh well. You reap the benefits. Enjoy Lance going off on Allura. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

The team was well on their way to the Blade of Marmora’s headquarters. Lance had forgotten how antsy everyone was over the whole situation. “Coran, how soon will we get to the Blade of Marmora’s base?” Asked Shiro.

“Based on the coordinates that Ulaz gave us, we should be there within a few doboshes.”

“I can’t wait to see it.” Said Pidge. “I mean, they were able to fold space-time, and that was just at an outpost!”

Mentioning the other base made Hunk’s stomach growl. “Mm, the space taco. It left us too soon…”

Pidge shrugged. “Well, sure, but my point is, imagine how amazing their home base will be!”

Hunk was practically drooling at this point. “Exactly. It could be any shape. Like a space jelly doughnut. Or long like a space eclair. Or a space cheese blintz with a cherry sauce on top. Maybe a little dusting of powdered sugar.”

“And now I’m hungry for breakfast.” Said Lance. While he wasn’t able to talk to the Blade face to face as Shiro and Keith would be going to their base he still had an idea of how to help them in the future. It was almost done and he would go ahead and give it to Kolivan when he came on board the ship later that day. After Keith got his ass kicked in the trials.

Speaking of Keith, the poor teen seemed very nervous about meeting the blade again. He was going to find out the truth about his past. He was going to find out that he was half Galra. Of course he was going to be nervous. Then there was what Allura was going to say about it… Lance loved her, but fuck that space racism. They didn’t have time for it.

“Guys, this is a serious mission. We need to focus.” Said Keith.

“The base is in range.” Said Coran.

“Take us in slowly.’ Said Shiro.

“Um… That might prove the tiniest bit of a challenge…” Muttered Coran. They got into view of the Blade of Marmora;s headquarters. It seemed to be situated between two black holes with a bright blue star in the middle.

As they talked about how they would get there the Blade contacted them and told them that only two could come down but without their weapons. The Blade also sent them a route to get to their headquarters. There was a bit of talk about who would go down when Lance spoke up.

“Shiro and Keith should go.” He said. “Shiro is the black paladin and leader. He should be the one to speak to the leader of the Blade. Red is the only lion that can withstand the heat of the star.”

Shiro nodded in agreement. “That does sound like the best option. Okay, Keith and I will head down.”

“Be careful.” Said Allura. “This could be a trap.”

The two paladins headed down to the hanger and Lance excused himself to the bathroom. Instead of going to the bathroom he went to his room to put the finishing touches on his own little project for the Blade.

In the future Pidge had worked with the Olkari and the Alteans to make short rage teladuv tech. The science behind it was a little above his head, but he knew the basics behind it to make short range teleportation. He didn’t have all the parts for it to be completely stable, and it was kind of a one use thing, but it could be very handy for the Blade.

He just needed to fit in the lenses he cut from one of the larger lenses for the teladuv to make it work. He had asked Coran for a spare, telling him it was important for future stuff. Maybe he was a little too trusting? Lance shook his head and carefully fitted the cut lenses into the devices he had hobbled together. He really hoped these would work and he wouldn’t turn the Blade of Marmora inside out.

***

After what seemed like an eternity the Red Lion returned with two Galra; Kolivan, and Ulaz. Everyone was shocked to see that Ulaz was still alive. Even Lance was a little shocked that his plan had actually worked.

“You’re still alive!” Said Hunk in shock. “How did that happen?”

Ulaz glanced over at Lance for a moment. “I managed to rig my craft to pilot itself into the RoBeast and self detonate. I ejected at the last moment and made my way back to the outpost. From there I made contact with the Blade and was brought back for reassignment.”

“Which is still up for discussion.” Muttered Kolivan. “It was still insubordination to give anything away about the Blade to others…” He looked at Allura and nodded. “PrincessAllura, it is good to see that the rumors are true. You’re still alive after all these years.”

“So is Zarkon.” Said Allura with a hint of venom. “Can we consider you our ally in the fight against him?” Before Kolivan could answer she noticed something was wrong with Keith. He wasn’t looking at her at all. Even Shiro didn’t look very comfortable standing by Keith. “Is something wrong?”

Everyone’s attention turned to them. Keith looked like he wanted to shrink away, but he took a deep breath and tried to steel himself. Lance had no idea how much he looked like a scared child. How the hell did Keith look so young?

Keith took his knife out and held it loosely with one hand. “I… Back on earth, I never knew who my mother was. My father always told me she was out among the stars. I thought he meant she was dead and watching over me. I mean, she could be dead, but she… My mother is a Galra. I’m half Galra.”

You could hear a pin drop in the room. Allura looked like she had been slapped in the face. “E-excuse me? You are what?”

“The Red Paladin has Galra blood flowing through his veins.” Said Kolivan calmly. "That knife he carries is a Galra blade that can only unlock its true power if it is wielded by someone with Galra blood. It stands to reason from what he has said and the fact he does have one of our knives that he is half human and half Galra.”

Allura looked like she was going to explode. Her fists were clenched in anger and she was shaking with rage. Though she looked like she was trying to keep it together.

“So you lied to us?” She asked.

Keith looked shocked. “I-I didn’t lie. I-”

“But you suspected that you weren’t completely human?” She snapped. “If you’d have shown us that damn knife we could have easily figured out where it might have come from and its origins. What other possible secrets are you keeping from us?” She asked accusingly.

“What? Allura I’m not keeping any secrets from-”

“Then why hide the knife?!” She yelled. “How can we trust you when you would blatantly conceal this part of yourself? How do we know you are not some kind of secret agent of Zarkon?”

Keith looked mortified. This was his word against hers. Lance knew that Allura would defuse this situation, but he had to say something. He hated this part of Allura. He knew that she was still hurting, but her misplaced grief and anger shouldn’t be forced onto Keith. He would be going through enough emotional turmoil as it was without Allura adding to it.

“Princess.” Said Shiro. “Ke-”

Lance interrupted him. “So? How does Keith being part Galra affect any of us?” Everyone kind of looked at Lance in shock, including Keith. “Pretty sure that Keith isn’t going to suddenly declare his undying loyalty to Zarkon just because he’s got some Galra blood in him.”

“Lance, the Galra are our enemy.” Said Allura. “They destroyed my planet! They are the enemy of Voltron and the entire universe!”

Lance gestured to Kolivan and Ulaz. “Um… Way to say that the Galra are our enemy when we are trying to ally with them.”

“This is different.” She said. “These are… Arguably good Galra compared to the rest of the empire.”

“You can’t other the Galra!” Snapped Lance. “Allura, we are at war. It’s easy to declare that all Galra are evil but they clearly are not! Voltron is the defender of the entire universe. Not the universe except the Galra. For every Galra that believes in Zarkon there are probably like four or five Galra that are just civilians living their lives. Hell, I don’t even know if the Galra have some kind of mandatory conscription to join their army!”

“Conscription is kind of mandatory.” Said Ulaz calmly.

“See?!”

Allura still looked extremely angry, but at least now that anger was directed towards him. “Lance, you are way out of line here!”

“We are at war Allura!” Snapped Lance. “We can’t let something as petty as whose dad stuck their dick in what to make a baby. Especially when they are ready, willing, and have been fighting against Zarkon from the very beginning! Keith is the Red Paladin of Voltron!”

“He is half-”

“And my Abdula is a pasty white Spaniard while my abuelo is a native Cuban. Does that mean I’m any less Cuban? No. I’m still Lance. Did we think any less of Pidge when they said they were a girl? No we didn’t! We accepted that and moved on!”

Ulaz and Kolivan looked at Pidge. “You… are a female?” Questioned Kolivan.

“Yeah? Have a problem with that?” She asked.

He shook his head. “No. Assuming you are around the same age as the other Paladins we would assume a female might be a bit… taller? Galra females usually tend to be a little taller around this age.”

“I’m younger than them.”

“Ah, you haven’t hit your growth period yet.” Said Ulaz knowingly.

Shiro put his hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Lance, maybe you should go for a walk.”

“But-”

“That wasn’t a suggestion. Go now.”

“... Fine.” Lance turned around and stormed off the bridge. He loved Allura, he really did, but he fucking hated racisim of any kind. Was Allura really that bad the first time around?

***

Keith was kind of stunned. Lance really tore into Allura. He was just stunned how quickly Lance jumped to his defence like it was nothing. There was still tension in the room and everyone that wasn’t Shiro, Allura, Coran, or the visiting Galra, left.

Pidge and Hunk didn’t really seem to know what to say. They looked at Keith with some suspicion, but they also seemed to look at him with pity Keith didn’t want pity. He slipped away to the training room to try and let out some of his emotions on some training robots.

He got to the training room and found Lance beating the shit out of a punching bag. Every now and then he threw in a powerful looking side kick. The bag had to be swinging at least 45 degrees with every kick. After a particularly powerful kick Lance took a few steps back and hissed in pain. He sat down and rolled up his pant legs. He looked like he might have bruised his shin.

“Are you okay?” Asked Keith as he walked over to him.

Lance didn’t even look up at him as he started to press and rub his knuckles over his shin. “I’m fine. I’m trying to dull the nerves in my shin. You know, condition them so it doesn’t hurt if I kick someone or something.”

“Um okay, I kind of meant… you know… You like Allura, right?”

“Just because I’m in love with Allura doesn’t mean I won’t go against her if she says something hateful.” He looked up at Keith with cold and serious eyes. “Keith. I don’t care if you are Galra. To me that changes nothing. You are still Keith. The same mullet hot head you’ve always been. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

“How can you just accept me like that?” Asked Keith. “Everyone else was looking at me like-”

“Because there is nothing fundamentally different about you.” Said Lance. He stood up and bounced on his feet for a few seconds. “Nothing has changed about you from this morning.”

“But the Galra are… They are our enemy and-”

“Your dad fell in love with a Galra.” Pointed out Lance. “I know he did. He always spoke about how she was a good person, right? He had to if he was talking about her being in the stars and all that poetic shit, right?”

“Yeah but-”

Lance held up his hand. “Nope. You be quiet. Your mother, whoever she was, was fighting against Zarkon. She fell in love with your father. She loved him enough to make you.” His expression softened a little. “You know, when you think about it you’re kind of everything Voltron represents. You’re living proof that Zarkon’s way is wrong.”

Keith could feel his face heating up. “Y-you don’t know that… For all you know she could have used my dad for some weird Galra reason…”

Lance’s shoulders dropped and he went back to punching the bag. “Well unless we find her and get some answers I’m going to believe that not all Galra are evil and you being born isn’t some evil Galra conspiracy.”

***

Soon Lance’s knuckles were back to being cut up and bloody from the punching bag. He left to bandage them while Keith continued to do his own training. Lance still felt frustrated about everyone's feelings towards the Galra. No one group of people were ever truly evil. 

He had learnt that time and time again. After the war he had met with countless Galra that even apologised to him personally for what they had done. They told their own war stories of how they had truly believed that they were doing the right thing. He didn’t hold it against them. War was war.

He spotted Ulaz walking around the hallway looking confused. “You okay there?” He asked.

“I was trying to find the bathroom.” Said Ulaz. “Your castle is confusing.”

“Oh sure. This way.” He happily directed Ulaz towards the bathroom. “Glad you made it out okay. I wasn’t sure it would work.”

“I too am surprised that device of yours worked, but I am thankful. It saved my life, but I am not in your debt.” Said Ulaz calmly. “I do not like being indebted to someone.”

Lance shrugged. “Yeah, that’s fair.” An idea suddenly sprung to mind. “Actually, I have something you could do for me.”

“Hmm?”

“I um… I’ve gone through some data from Galra bases and something has popped up a few times… Kuron.” Lance knew this was a huge risk, but if he could get the Blade to expose that future clone, then they could save themselves from a lot of headaches in the future. “I… I haven’t really gotten too much out of it, but other things like DNA and genome keep popping up too. Along with Haggar… Whatever this Kuron thing is, I think it has to do with Haggar.”

“Zarkon’s witch?”

“The very same…” Lance took a small pouch out of his pocket and held it out to him. “Here… This is something I think you guys might be able to use these…”

Ulaz opened it and took out a metal device that looked like two magnets stuck together. “What is this?”

“It’s a small range teleportation device. You pull them apart, stick one on yourself and one on the place you want to be teleported to.” Said Lance. “It activates when the glass shatters. So if you are caught in an explosion it could save your life.”

Ulaz looked impressed and quickly put the devices away. “You are well prepared for any event, aren’t you?”

Lance shrugged. “Voltron needs as many people as possible still alive and on our side. We all need to work together to defeat Zarkon.”

“Indeed… You know, you remind me of Shiro.” Said Ulaz calmly. “You have this look in your eyes. Like you are a soldier. Someone who has seen so much in such a short amount of time.”

“Yeah, I guess I have… Then again so have you.”

Ulaz nodded in agreement. “Yes. That is a fair assessment… Thank you for trusting us.”

“I have no reason not to trust you… And since we all know that Keith is half Galra, I trust that you will help him when he has questions about his Galra heritage?”

“Of course. I believe that Voltron is the key to stopping Zarkon… Antok has arrived and we are discussing plans to take down Zarkon. With the allies you have gathered and our intel we might be able to end him once and for all.”

“Yeah… Hopefully. Bathroom is here.” Lance pointed to a door and Ulaz quickly went inside. Things were getting set in motion. Lance still wasn’t sure how he could go about saving Shiro, but he had to try and figure that out soon or just give up and write it off as a fixed point in time.


	12. Blackout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And season 2 comes to a close... Next up season 3! Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

“So…” Said Lance. “First, we infect Zarkon’s ship with a virus. Then we make an extra-large wormhole and lure Zarkon inside of it, zapping in a bajillion light-years away. Then when he pops out on the other side his ship won’t work, and then Voltron kicks his butt and saves the universe. Is that a good summary?”

Everyone had gotten together to figure out a plan. Team Voltron and the Blade. This plan, just like last time, was a good plan, but so flawed. Worst of all Shiro would end up dead by the end of this and he still had no idea how to save Shiro from getting killed and replaced by some clone. He was running out of time. 

“Wow, so this is it.” Said Hunk.

Pidge nodded in agreement. “I guess the only question is, when do we strike?”

Coran pulled up an interface and pressed a few buttons. This caused the projector to show the inner workings of a teludav. “As soon as we build a teludav big enough to wormhole Zarkon’s ship.”

“Oh man.” Whined Hunk. “The teludav again? Does that mean we need more scaultrite?”

“That’s just one of the many things we’ll need.” Said Allura

“Am I sensing a trip back to the space mall here?” Asked Hunk.

Coran shook his head. “I’m afraid not. This is gonna take a lot more scaultrite than we can find at any Unilu shop. For this plan to succeed, we’re gonna need to split up.”

And like that the teams went down to the hanger. Keith and Hunk were in charge of getting the scaultrite. Lance knew they would succeed like they had before. Plus he knew that Hunk was probably the best person Keith could be around at the moment in his emotional state. Once they left the remaining Paladins made their way to the Blue lion.

“I um… I know you will succeed.” Said Allura.

“Don’t worry about us Allura.” Said Lance. “ You just take care of yourself too. Okay?”

They got into Blue and Lance piloted her out to the Galra Space Station Beta Traz. Lance was actually kind of interested in talking to Slav this time around. He might actually get some information he could use out of the weird caterpillar alien thing.

They made it to the station without much trouble and as per normal, Lance and Shiro split up. Shiro finding the actual Slav and Lance finding Laika, the wardon’s pet yupper. She was friendly enough and happily followed him through the ship.

“Hey Laika. Nice to see you again.”

“Yup.”

“Wanna go for a walk?”

“Yup.”

“Okay, let’s go.” Lance happily led Laika through the bowls of the ship. It was pleasant enough to talk to her again. Must have been nice for her to roam around a little. “So same deal as last time. Pidge is the hacker, Shiro’s the leader, Hunk’s the mechanic and chef, Keith is the cool bad boy hot head.”

“Yup.”

“And as for me, well at least I don’t feel like a fifth wheel anymore… Or seventh. I’m actually the team time traveler and all around undoer of time fuck ups.”

“Yup.”

“... But you know, Allura was really, really racist.” Said Lance. “I didn’t think she was that bad. She was nice. Is nice… Mostly… I mean, it has been years since I have seen her, so maybe I’m like, looking at this situation with rose coloured glasses?”

“Yup.”

“... But I still think she deserves to live. Like, eventually she will talk to Keith and get over her racism but still… Do you think I’m being reasonable?”

“Yup.”

After that there was a lot of screaming. Mostly on Slav’s part. But they rescued him and made it back to the castleship. Hunk and Keith were successful in their mission. Allura on the other hand… Well, Lance almost forgot that the RoBeast on the Balmera wasn’t exactly killed yet. That was fun to try and take down again. Technically Lance’s fourth fight with the damn thing.

From there they got into contact with Ryner of the Olkari and with Slav’s help, they went about creating the universe's largest teludav. It was pretty interesting to watch, but at the same time things were quickly starting to spiral again. 

He had no idea how to save Shiro or even if he should or could. He loved Shiro like family. Shiro was his family, but that clone… He didn’t really know what to do. It was a lot of pressure on someone. Maybe Shiro dying was some kind of fixed point in time that he couldn’t change? He remembered his Doctor Who time travel rules.

Then there were the implications of what Madam Whipash said to him. Her predictions were… They were bad per say, but they weren’t very good either. This whole anti hero thing could really work against him if his goal was to save Allura so they could have a future together. Maybe if things didn’t work out in a romantic sense he could just… It didn’t matter if Allura didn’t end up falling in love with him. He still wanted to save her. He didn’t even know how to confess that he loved her to her.

“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Screamed Slav as he dived under a desk.

“What happened?” Asked an Olkari.

Another Olkari shrugged as they slowly put down a screwdriver. “A-all I did was pick up a screwdriver…”

“And now there is a 85.7% chance that I will get crushed by a falling metal panel!” Cried Slav. “Then we won’t get this built in time and Zarkon will kill us all! Especially me!”

Team Voltron had been watching the construction of the teludav and even been helping out with it when they could. Slav had been… well… Slav. He was paranoid as all hell and was making things difficult. But he was a brilliant man in his own right. Just kind of mental and eccentric.

An Olkari came around soon after that outburst to hand out some food for lunch. Slav decided to stay hidden under his desk and mutter all kinds of statistics to himself. Lance looked at him for a few moments before he decided to bite the bullet and walk over to him.

“Hey Slav. How are things going?”

“Fine. Fine.” He muttered. “By the way, what socks are you wearing today?”

Lance lifted up the leg of his pants and showed him his white socks. “White.”

“Hmm… 25.3% chance of one of the Lions landing on top of me and crushing me with their metal foot… Proceed.”

“... Right. So… How do you think things are going to go? Like, do you think we will wing against Zarkon?”

Slav shrugged. “You never know… The probability is well over 90% at this very moment but I don’t have all the facts so other variables could be set in motion that would make our chances to succeed a stunning 0%. Why?”

“I’m just thinking about stuff and things…”

“Stuff and things huh?” Asked Slav in a suspicious tone. “... How many days have you worn those stocks?”

“... Like two days I think? I really should change them.”

Slav instantly looked alarmed and pointed his fork at the Blue Paladin, waving it wildly. “Oh no you don’t! You stay the garfunkel away from me! This is the universe where there is a 87.7736% chance that you lose your damn mind and start swinging around those duel swords wielding and carving up everyone you see!”

“... My bayard is a gun and I can’t duel wield swords.”

“Oh? Really? … Then it’s a 37.89% chance! Too damn high!” Slav jabbed his fork towards Lance’s ankles, making him jump back to avoid getting poked. “Stay. Away. From. Me.”

“Hey! I’m not! Argh! You are impossible!” Lance walked off and left him alone. There was no point in talking to Slav when he was acting this crazy. There was no way he was going to be able to get any kind of reasonable answer out of him for anything..

Which honestly sucked. He wanted to get him to answer some probability questions for him. But nope. He was just as crazy as ever. Once again he would have to rely on himself to get things done. Not like he hadn’t already realized this in the beginning.

At the moment there wasn’t really anyone he could talk to. Allura, Coran, Shiro and other people in more leadership positions were making battle plans. Hunk and Pidge were working with the Olkari and Slav. Keith was probably still doing training or something and Lance… What was he doing the last time this was happening? That’s right, exploring the planet and playing video games in his room. He wasn’t very good with anything else. At least not at the time.

Lance ended up going to a bride in the Olkari capitol that overlooked the construction of the teludav and just spent his time thinking. He didn’t know how to save Shiro. He didn’t want to accept that this was a fixed point in time that he couldn’t change. He had to change it. If he didn’t then that clone would appear.

Maybe he could talk to Shiro? Shiro had always tried to pride himself on being the leader and listening to all of them and their problems. Maybe he would listen to him if he phrased his concerns in the right way? He at least wanted to have a proper heart to heart with Shiro. Especially since he didn’t know how his meddling could change the future. If he wasn’t careful he could accidentally end Shiro’s existence forever. He didn’t want to be responsible for that.

“You look like you’re thinking hard there.” Said Shiro.

Lance glanced over at him. Looking at Shiro these days left a sour feeling in Lance’s mouth. He meant so much to so many people. Especially Keith. When Shiro died, Keith went mental looking for him… Only to find the clone.

“Yeah, just thinking about this…” Lance gestured to the construction going on. “Are we really going to defeat Zarkon? I mean, is this it? Do you really think this is it? Just a one, two, Zarkon’s dead? I mean, there will be a huge fall out. Factions and people trying to become the new emperor… Also, do we even know if Zarkon has a kid? Are we going to have to go Anakin on a bunch of younglings?”

That made Shrio laugh a little. He stood by Lance and looked out over the construction. “We are going to end this war… And when Zarkon is defeated, I’ll make sure you all get home.”

“After finding Pidge’s family?” Asked Lance. “You know there is no way we are going to leave her alone out here to look for them.”

“Oh definitely.” Said Shiro.

“Yeah… Is Keith doing okay?” He asked. “Like, the thing with Allura and finding out he’s kind of half the race we are fighting against… And they kind of took your arm and all…”

Shiro pursed his lips and took a deep breath. He didn’t seem too comfortable talking about that subject. Though Lance couldn’t tell if it was because of the arm comment or Keith. “Keith is fine… As fine as anyone can be in his situation. I think what you said to Allura really helped him. When he first found out and activated his blade back at their headquarters, I can’t even describe the fear and shame that came over him. What you said really helped him out a lot.”

“That’s a relief… I still can’t believe Allura was so racist.”

Shiro shrugged. “I can understand where she’s coming from. I mean, I was kind of forced to fight to the death for a long time… and they took my arm. But unlike me they took her entire planet away. I still think she is wrong, but Keith and her did have a talk.”

“They did?”

“They did. I think your speech rattled her a little too.” He said. “I’m really proud of you Lance. You’re proving yourself to be irreplaceable.”

Lance laughed a little at that. “I guess, but don’t sell yourself short. You’re pretty irreplaceable too. Black Paladin.”

“Thanks Lance… Anyway, come back to the castleship. It’s almost time for dinner.”

“Will do.” Said Lance. Shiro nodded and went to walk away, but Lance called out to him. “Hey actually Shiro, can we talk for a bit?”

“Sure Lance. What’s up? Nervous about how everything is going to go down?”

Lance couldn’t help but laugh. Of course he was, but not for the reasons he thought. “Yeah, I guess I am… I can’t help but feel that something really bad is going to happen… Shiro, I um… I’ve had some really weird dreams lately, and I don’t know if it’s all some weird exposure to something, but my mind… I’ve been experiencing some really intense deja vu.” If he could frame his concerns and worries as something like that then maybe Shiro would take him more seriously. Probably not but it was worth a try.

“Deja vu?” Questioned Shiro. “What about?”

“Everything.” Said Lance. “I… I’ve had these weird dreams before we came to space. I saw The Blue Lion and the castle of lions. I saw Allura and Coran… the Balmera, the times we fought the Galra, hell, I even saw when Keith discovered he was half Galra.”

Shiro looked surprised. “Lance… Those are just… Well it’s weird and I can’t explain it, but humans can’t see the future.”

“I know. Which is why I haven’t mentioned anything before.” Said Lance. He happened to look at Shiro and could see the concern written all over his face. This wasn’t really something he could just hand wave and explain away as space stuff. 

“Is this wny you’ve been acting so differently?” Asked Shiro. “According to Hunk and PIdge anyway.”

Lance smiled a little and nodded. “Yeah. Kind of. I go to sleep and I dream about future fights but I never remember them until the time gets close. Then I just… I know. How do you think I managed to stay so calm through our fights so far?”

Shiro still looked concerned. “We should probably get you to a doctor… Maybe have Coran scan your head?”

“Yeah, probably…” Lance took a deep breath and decided to just go for it. He couldn’t do anything to save Shiro. Maybe he could at least warn him a little. “Shiro… The reason I’m telling you this is because I… I had a dream about this fight and… Shiro, you die.”

Shiro continued to look surprised, but he gave Lance a kind look and gently patted his back. “It’s okay. Thank you for telling me about this… But you have to remember, this isn’t set in stone. We can change the future.”

“I know but…” Lance sighed a little and gave Shiro a sad look. “I… A lot of the things I have seen have come true, and if this is real then… I just wanted to say that you are an amazing leader. A man that we all care about and we all look up to. Voltron isn’t the same without you and…” Despite his best efforts, Lance could feel himself tearing up a little. “You’ve always been someone I look up to. Fuck, I’ve asspired to be like you since I first enrolled in the Garrison I-”

Lance was suddenly embraced by Shiro. How long had it been since he had teared up like this? How long had it been since someone had held him this way? He felt like a small child again, and comparatively, he was. He was still just a kid in an alien war.

Shiro let him go and gave him a reassuring look. “Lance, it will be alright. I’m going to be fine. Everyone is going to be fine. The mission will succeed. We will put an end to Zarkon. I can promise you that much.” Even if Shiro meant it, Lance knew it was a lie. Even if he warned him he doubted that would change anything because he didn’t know what he needed to change. 

When the day of the beetle came, it all went down exactly as Lance remembered it. Every explosion, every call made. Even down to the huge and stupid looking Zarkon RoBeast. Just seeing that flying around in space made Lance believe that Shiro’s death was an inevitability that he couldn’t change no matter how much he wanted to.

So when the Black Lion was eventually brought back to the ship and everyone rushed to get to him, Lance couldn’t help but hate himself. Especially when he heard the desperation in Keith’s voice. He knew Shiro was gone.

“Shiro!” Yelled Keith as he ran to the cockpit. Probably hoping that Shiro was just unconscious or injured. But when they found nothing but his bayard in the cockpit the almost child-like fear in Keith’s voice was palpable. “Shiro?”

Lance swallowed, feeling a lump forming in his throat. Unlike the last time he knew what was happening. He knew that Shiro was never coming back in his original body. He needed to prepare and make plans for when his clone decided to make an appearance. “He’s gone…”


	13. Changing of the Guard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for the lions to swap around and do their thing. All that good fun stuff... And Lance gets a final flight with Blue damn it! Also, a fair bit of stuff did happen off screen because this is all mostly from Lance's perspective so if the Allura and Keith thing seems a little rushed, that's because it happened off screen between them. Anyway, Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

With Shiro dead and gone, Lance found himself in the hanger more often just looking up at the Black Lion. He knew that Shiro’s consciousness was hidden deep within the Black Lion now. He just didn’t know if Shiro could hear him now or if there was some kind of wait period before Shiro became conscious of what happened to him. 

Everyone else was still holding out hope that Shiro was still alive. Especially Keith. Keith had been searching for him every day in the Red Lion. He didn’t have the heart to tell him that the Shiro he knew really was gone. Shiro really was a hero. He gave his life for the universe.

“Lance? I thought I would find you here.” Said Allura. She walked over to him and also looked up at the Black Lion. “... It has been weeks since Shiro disappeared.”

“We need another Black Paladin.” Said Lance calmly.

She looked at him and smiled at him. “We do… I think you are ready to take up that mantle.”

“Yeah I, wait what?” Asked Lance in confusion. “Um, since when have I been the candidate to be the Black Paladin?”

“Well out of all the Paladins you are the obvious choice.” She said calmly. “You are extremely disciplined and have been able to make snap decisions in the heat of battle. Even if we haven’t acknowledged it you have said some extremely insightful things… And most importantly you weren’t afraid to call me out in front of everyone after I accused Keith of such vulgar things.”

Lance nodded a little as he looked at her. He was glad that she looked ashamed about how she acted. “Yeah? Well there are a few things I really can’t stand Allura. One of those things is racism… On Earth, we aren’t a peaceful people. There is always some kind of war going on and for the stupidest reasons… Mistrust, anger, and toxic patriotism always comes from stuff like that. Everyone always gets othered and we are pitted against each other, and for what? Why? There is no reason… While the Galra are our enemy they aren’t monsters.”

“Exactly.” Said Allura. “It’s that kind of level headed thinking that Voltron needs… I and everyone else would be honored if you would take up the role as the Black Paladin… Um… at least until Shiro comes back…”

“Yeah… Until he comes back…” Lance looked up at the Black Lion and frowned. “The Lions choose the Paladin. Not the other way around… I think it’s only fair that everyone gets a chance to see if Black thinks we are worthy to pilot them.”

She nodded in agreement. “I agree… The Black Lion should make the choice, but I am pretty sure everyone knows who the obvious choice is for Black Paladin.”

“We shall see… By the way, thanks for making up with Keith.” Said Lance. “I appreciate it… Keith’s had a really hard life growing up compared to the rest of us and… Voltron is his family. We are his family. If we just suddenly severed our ties with him he’d have nothing… It would be like if we all just decided not to follow you anymore. I mean, no offence Allura but you’re only a Princess in name. If we stopped following you because we just decided not to then what would you be? Just an Altean with a fancy spaceship.”

Allura seemed to be a little taken aback by his statement. “Lance what are you saying?”

“I mean no disrespect, Allura.” He said quickly. “I’m just pointing out that if we all suddenly abandoned you then it would be like Voltron abandoning Keith. It’s just something we can’t do. We are a family. You don’t just abandon family for a reason as silly as that.”

“I agree.” She said quietly. “... I will go and talk to Coran. See where Keith is then orgonise everyone coming together to see who will be the new Black Paladin.”

As she left the room Lance got a call from someone on his datapad. He quickly opened it up to see a hologram of Ulaz. He couldn’t help but smile. “Hey man, good to hear from you again. How are things going with the Blade?”

_“Things are going well. Though after my actions I am being put on more administrative duties for the time being.”_ He said. _“I have some information on Kuron.”_

Lance could feel his blood run cold. “Yeah? What about it?”

_“The Kuron project seems to be an offshoot of another Haggar inspired project called Kugutsu. Though I am unclear of many of the details, Kugutsu seems to be a kind of upgraded armour for soldiers while the Kuron project seems to be a soldier based initiative.”_ Said Ulaz. _“From what I can conclude from the small amount of information I could gather Kuron is the Empire’s solution to recruitment and Kugutsu could be armour specifically made for Kuron.”_

Lance didn’t like the sound of that. Kugutsu wasn’t a thing in his timeline. Maybe it was just a defunct project the Galra had that birthed the Kuron idea? Maybe it was. He’d keep an ear out for this. “Interesting… So super soldiers in super armor?”

_“That is a good simplification of the situation.”_ Said Ulaz calmly. 

“Yeah… By the way how are Antok and Thace going?”

_“They have recovered from most of their injuries.”_ Said Ulaz. _“Though they still have a long way to go. They were both caught up in an explosion.”_

“Naturally.”

_“The Blade seems to be indebted to you Blue Paladin.”_

“You can pay me back by winning the war.” Said Lance calmly. “By the way we are going to be finding a new Black Paladin soon.”

Ulaz let out a sad sigh. He clearly had a lot of faith in Shiro. _“So Shiro is…”_

“Don’t lose hope… He could be out there somewhere, but we need a Black Paladin to form Voltron.”

_“That is true… I wish you and the other Paladin’s good luck.”_

“Good luck to you too Ulaz. Take care.” Lance ended the call. His frown deepened. Maybe they could figure out the clone issue before he truly came to light? What would that mean for Shiro’s spirit inside the Black Lion? Maybe they could find a clone base and just pick one at random to transfer Shiro’s consciousness into?

***

Several days had passed since then and there had been many problems. Mostly Keith blowing up during a diplomatic meeting because they couldn’t form Voltron because they didn’t have Shiro. It broke Lance’s heart to see how torn up about this Keith had become. He was completely obsessed with finding Shiro. His obsession over one person wasn’t healthy at all… Then again he’d be a hypocrite to say anything about obsession. The only reason he was even there was because he had an obsession with saving Allura.

The team was sitting around the lounge and trying to figure out ways that they could reform Voltron. Pidge asked Allura if she could pick one of them since she kind of did that when they came to the castleship in the first place. She told them who would pilot what lion and it actually worked.

“Yeah, how did you do that?” Asked Hunk. “Did we ever find out how you did that? Can you do that now?”

Allura shook her head. “Sadly, no. When you arrived at the Castle, I immediately recognised the special qualities in each of you. But I don’t know how to search the entire universe for a new Paladin.”

Coran looked over at Keith. “Keith, you piloted the Black Lion when you had to save Shiro. Perhaps you’re the one?”

“Keith would make a very interesting leader of Voltron.” Mused Lance.

Pidge nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we all have our thing. Keith’s the loner. I’m the brain. Hunk’s the nice one. Allura’s the decision maker. Coran’s the wise old guy, and Lance is the guy that keeps us focused.”

“Hey I’m not a goof- Wait what?” Lance was kind of confused by that statement. Wasn’t he meant to be the goofball of the group?

“What?” Asked Pidge. “What did you think you were?”

“... The goofball?”

Keith chuckled slightly. “Are you joking? Sure you have your stupid moments, but you always come through when we need you.”

Pidge nodded in agreement and so did Hunk. “Goofy, but not a goofball.”

Lance was still kind of shocked that no one on the team just wrote him off at the goofball this time around. Maybe he had been using his future knowledge a little too much? He quickly shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts.

“Anyway, Shiro wanted you to be his successor.” Lance said to Keith.

“I don’t want to be the leader! That’s what Shiro wanted!” He snapped. “You’re more qualified to be the leader then me! You take it!”

“I don’t want to be the leader either!” 

“Then we shall go down to the Black Lion and present ourselves to them.” Said Allura. “All of us. That includes me and Coran too.”

Coran looked shocked. “You Princess?”

Allura nodded. “My father created Voltron. How can I allow others to risk their lives in battle, and not be prepared to do so myself? I have more value to the team than just being the decision maker. I must try.”

So the group went down to the hanger and one by one everyone had a go at trying to pilot the Black Lion. Finally it was just down to Lance and Keith. Everyone gestured for Lance to go first, which he did.

Lance got into the cockpit and sat down. He crossed his arms and sighed. “Well… I don’t really know what I’m meant to say now… Am I meant to say hi to you Black, or hi to Shiro… Eh, whatever… Look, Shiro, if you can hear me, I want to say I’m sorry. I couldn’t figure out how to save you… I thought about every possible outcome but it… I didn’t know how to tell you the truth. Shiro, I’m from the future. I know you and Black are going to choose Keith and I’m okay with that. I promise you that no matter what I’ll be right by Keith’s side… And I’ll do what I can to protect the team from Haggar and that clone.”

The Black lion made no indication that they acknowledged anything Lance said. So he got out of the chair and walked outside, much to the surprise of everyone else. Which left Keith. Keith looked extremely nervous to have to even try and see if the Black Lion would choose him. Needless to say it did.

Lance let out a sigh of relief. At least he didn’t mess around with the timeline so much that Keith wasn’t the Black Paladin again. He at least had that going for him.

***

Later that evening when everyone had gone to bed Lance was still in the hanger. With the Black Lion choosing Keith as their new paladin he didn’t have much time left with Blue before she gave him over to Red.

He walked over to her, only to find she had already put up her shield. Although he knew it was coming, it didn’t hurt any less. “Hey Blue? I know you have decided that I’m not your Paladin anymore but… Just one more time… Could we go for one more fly around the universe? Just one more? Please?”

After a few seconds Blue dropped her shield and let Lance in. Without hesitation, Lance quickly ran into Blue and jumped into the cockpit. He quickly put her in drive and the two of them flew out and around the castleship.

Lance couldn’t help but feel tears rolling down his face. Out of all the lions he loved Blue the most. She was his lion. The Lion that started it all and in the future, the last lion to leave. She chose him to be her paladin.

“Thank you Blue.” He said quietly. “For trusting me and believing in me…” 

He felt warmth and comfort flood through him. It was all coming from Blue. The connection with her was still strong but he could still feel her pushing him away. Not in a forceful way, but like a parent encouraging their child to go out and explore the wider playground by themselves. It was at that moment he had an epiphany. 

“You knew…” He said quietly as tears started to run down his face. “You always knew… You knew that in the end I would be piloting Red, but you let me take care of you for her… Thank you Blue… Thank you…”

They flew around the castle a few more times before Lance had to bite the bullet and go back. For the final time Lance landed Blue and stepped out. He took a few steps away from her before he turned back and looked up at her. He smiled at her, and he could have sworn she smiled back at him.

“Take care of her for me. I’m counting on you.”

***

On his way back to his room he stopped by the kitchen to get himself something to drink. When he got there he happened to find Coran. He was sitting at a table eating something that didn’t look edible in the slightest. He looked miserable.

“... Um, are you okay there Coran?” He asked.

The older male looked up at him for a moment before nodding. “Oh yes. Quite fine… I’m just… I’m worried with the direction things are taking, and I know I can ask you, but you can only tell me so much and I just… It’s frustrating…”

“Yeah, I get it. It’s frustrating for me too.” Said Lance. “I have so many things I want to talk about but I can’t…”

“Like Shiro vanishing and Keith becoming the new Black Paladin?”

Lance chuckled a little and sat by him when he had his H2O pouch. “Yeah… I couldn’t figure out how to save Shiro from his fate, so I just had to let it happen… But if he didn’t vanish then Keith wouldn’t become the Black Paladin and come into his own… Keith might not seem like it now, but he is an amazing leader. When he comes into his own he really becomes the leader that Voltron needs. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“You really trust him to lead?”

“Of course.” Said Lance. “I have hindsight on my side. With that hindsight I know what will happen. Shiro was our leader and the one we needed at the start when we were getting our bearings, but Keith… He is the Black Paladin that will lead Voltron to victory.”

“Okay, but what are we going to do about the Red Lion? We are still down a Paladin and can’t form Voltron.”

“That will work itself out in the end.” He said. “Trust me Coran.”

“So everything does work out in the end?”

Lance nodded. “Of course. Naturally there is heartache and what not along the way, but we make it. We all make it.”

“That’s good to know… It’s just hard to accept that Shiro is really gone. Should I try and discourage Keith from trying to find him since he won’t?”

Lance frowned and put his water pouch down. “... Coran. The Shiro we have known for so long… He’s dead. There is still a version of him out there, but it isn’t Shiro. Not our Shiro…”

“What are you trying to say lad?”

“If and when we do find Shiro, we can’t trust him. Not anymore.”

“Are you saying that he’ll have changed sides?” Asked Coran. “A double agent?”

Lance finished his water pouch and chucked it in the bin. “I can’t tell you for certain Coran. I’m just warning you. Unless I say otherwise, if we find a Shiro, it is not our Shiro. The only Shiro I will ever accept is the one that exists in the Black Lion. All other versions are not Shiro and never will be… I should go to bed and so should you.”

“Right you are Lance.” Said Coran. “I’m just going to finish off my fendagel wibbiwom. It’s quite a delicacy on Trilton.”

“I’m sure it is. Night Coran.”

“Goodnight Lance.”

Lance went to his room and straight to bed. Still, as he laid there and thought over the day’s events he couldn’t help but mourn over the loss of Blue again. His lion. She was amazing and one of the most important things in the universe to him. Losing her was almost like losing Allura all over again. But it was for a good cause. He was getting closer to saving Allura. That was all that mattered. Right?


	14. Pep talks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lance is trying so hard to make sure that Keith is a confident Black Paladin, while trying to figure out how to deal with the clone. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

With Keith now piloting the Black Lion, everyone was questioning who would pilot the Red Lion. Much to everyone’s shock, but Lance’s, Lance became the Red Paladin. He just shrugged it off as he sat on Red’s paw. 

“They just decided that I needed to be with them from now on.” He said. “The Lions work in mysterious ways.”

What was even crazier was that Allura got accepted as the Blue Paladin. So the trio ended up taking their new lions into space to get a feel for them. Lance was still getting used to Red’s speed, but he was quickly remembering how they worked. In the back of his mind he could feel a burning sensation. Red’s fiery and passionate spirit was still as strong as ever. He swore he could feel a hint of amusement mixed in there too.

It was similar to the feeling he got from Blue when he saw her again in the cave. It was like Red already knew who he was but didn’t question that familiarity. It was nice. He didn’t have to bond with them nearly as much as the other two did. Allura was wobbling on her landings and turns. Keith was so frustrated he was slamming the controls loud enough for everyone to hear over the intercom.

Eventually they landed back in the hanger and Keith stormed off in frustration. He clearly didn’t want to be here. He wanted to be out there looking for Shiro. Everyone was worried about him and Lance could tell everyone was questioning Keith’s leadership. 

Lance took it upon himself to catch up with Keith in the hallway and talk to him before he locked himself up in his bedroom. “Hey man, can we talk?”

“Why didn’t the Black Lion choose you?!” He practically yelled. “I can’t even pilot the damn Black Lion while you’re just some Lion natural! You should be the leader! Make Black choose you! I can’t be the leader of Voltron! I need to look for Shiro!”

Lance was a little taken aback by that outburst, but kept his cool. “Keith. Remember when you told me Shiro wanted you to lead Voltron if something happened to him? Remember what I told you? I told you that I would be the one to keep your hot head in check.”

“Well yeah but-”

“Shiro knew what he was talking about.” Said Lance. “Has Shiro ever steered us wrong before?”

Keith still looked frustrated. “Shiro is the Black Paladin. I can’t be the Black Paladin. If I’m the Black Paladin then I have to accept that Shiro’s…”

“Shiro’s gone?”

“... Yeah.” Muttered Keith. “If I accept that I’m the Black Paladin then that means that I have to accept that Shiro is gone. He can’t be gone… He’s the only one that’s never given up on me. I can’t give up on him.”

This was just breaking Lance’s heart. “Keith… We aren’t going to stop looking for Shiro just because you are the Black Paladin. The Black Lion chose you, and to be honest those things are kind of elderich abominations when you think about it… The way they are machines but sentient and just connect with us? I’ve never had to bond with my phone like that on earth… Point is I trust them and I trust you.”

“... You would still be a better Black Paladin.” Said Keith. His frustration had melted away and he was miserable.

“Black and Shiro believe in you. I believe in you.” Said Lance. “I’ll be your right hand and keep you in check. Everything will be okay. Keith, you are more capable than you give yourself credit for. If you’re willing to lead, I’m willing to help you however I can.”

Keith frowned at him. He looked distraught but at the same time he seemed oddly calm? It was strange. He didn’t really know what to make of it. Keith just ended up talking back to his room. Lance wasn’t sure if he had hoped so. Keith needed to know that he was the leader that Voltron needed and deserved.

***

Lance couldn’t help but grind his teeth. The team was following none other than Lotor. The bastard was so close but yet so far. He had forced the group into the storm planet and their sensors were malfunctioning. They were kind of fucked.

 _“We need to get out of here.”_ Said Hunk. _“We’ve been led into a trap. The tables have turned. He’s flipping the script. The hungers have become the hunted!_

“Hunk, shouting taglines is getting us nowhere!” Said Lance. He gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on his controls. “Keith, we need to pull back!”

 _“No!”_ Snapped Keith.

 _“I can’t get a reading on anything!”_ Said Pidge in a slight panic. _“My systems are malfunctioning! I can’t see where I’m going!”_

_“I said no! We can do this!”_

_“I have to pull back!”_ Said Allura.

Lance could feel himself practically growling at this point. “KEITH! YOU’RE SPLITTING UP THE TEAM! DON’T BE LIKE ZARKON AND LEAD US TO OUR DEATHS!”

Yelling that seemed to snap Keith out of whatever break in sanity he had and actually listen to him. For some reason he actually pulled the team out of the storm planet before they completely separated. Which caused Lance a lot of concern. 

So much so that he didn’t give a damn when they came across the trans dimensional comet. Alternate Slav did seem a little sceptical of him, but that was about it. Sven got shot again and asked to be taken to a space hospital, and of course Lotor took the fucking comet.

***

Lance sighed heavily as he leaned against the wall of the training room. He was dead tired from speed running this version of reality. He still thought about Madam Whipash’s warning about what his future self would become. He just didn’t see what would make him turn into something evil or different.

He was still on track to save Allura. It was all good. It was fine. They had gone on a few more missions and Keith was slowly coming into his own. Kind of. Lance took a deep breath and cracked his knuckles. 

They were going to find the clone in roughly a week. He didn’t know how he was going to react. That clone was not Shiro. They were Haggar’s puppet. But he had to follow its orders to stop Haggar figuring out he knew anything. Then there was the team. If they knew that he didn’t trust Shiro then there would be questions. Too many questions.

He would just have to grin and bear it… Then maybe figure out a situation where Haggar takes control and then knock him out? Shove him in a cryo pod for a few months while they try to figure out what to do? That seemed possible, right? If he needed to he could.

It would all be worth it in the end if he could prevent Allura’s death. He just had to. She needed to live. He didn’t want to live in a future with just the ghost of her memory. He has to save her. He wouldn’t allow the world to continue without her.

His communicator started to vibrate and he quickly took it out. Another call from Ulaz. “Hey man. Still on admin leave?”

 _“I am.”_ He said. _“How are things going with Voltron? Have you found a new Black Paladin yet?”_

“Yeah, we did a little reshuffling so Keith’s now the Black Paladin, I’m the Red Paladin, and Allura is the Blue Paladin.”

_“The Princess has taken up a more proactive role?”_

Lance shrugged. “I guess she wants to prove that she is more than just a princess? She’s a pretty good fighter and I know she will be a good fit for Voltron.”

_“Hmm, I trust your judgement. Anyway, I have information to pass on.”_

Lance nodded and sat on the floor. “Okay. Lay it on me.”

 _“Kuron and its function is still mostly a mystery to me, and anyone of the Blade involved in the project either can’t get in contact with us at the moment or the project is just so tight lipped about the whole thing that no one knows anything about it.”_ Said Ulaz. _“The project is very secretive.”_

“What isn’t when it comes to the Glara?” Asked Lance. “Anyway, what about that other thing? Kugutsu? Anything more about that?”

Ulaz nodded and sent him a file. It contained schematics for some weird piece of technology. It kind of looked like a headpiece attached to a long, flat piece of segmented metal. Zooming in it looked like there were several needles along the underside of it.

_“It seems to be some kind of armor that’s implanted into the body. I am not really sure of the purpose of this… But I am pretty sure that the Kugutsu are ineffective compared to actual robot soldiers. That they are using now. Though I did believe that it was discontinued, I am not sure anymore. I think that they are starting up Kugutsu again. Maybe… I am not sure.”_

“Okay… Thanks for that. Are Antok and Thace back in action?”

_“Yes. They are healed and are back to work. We cannot afford to rest long in the fight against Zarkon.”_

“Agreed.” Said Lance. “I won’t keep you any longer. Stay safe out there.”

_“You too Red Paladin.”_

Lance hung up and started to look through more of the files Ulaz had sent him on Kugutsu. He couldn’t help but speculate and theorise what this was all about. In his previous timeline Keith had talked about the cloning facility with hundreds of Shiro's all ready to go. Maybe if Haggar had gotten rid of Voltron she would have deployed the rest of the clones with that armor as some kind of elite task force? He could see it happening.

That also made some amount of sense in his mind. They defeated Haggar so they never found out about it. The plan was stopped and Kugutsu never needed to exist… It still didn’t stop him from looking through the files to see what other gadgets Haggar had planned for this thing.

The armor was broken up into several parts that all seemed to clip together. When all parts were clipped together they would link together, powered by the main part of the armon that was the spine and headpiece, they would work as one unit. But when disconnected they were just reinforced pieces of metal. 

Some of the most interesting things about the design that he found were the jets that seemed to be located in the legs and arms. Something to increase speed and agility. Also, the jegs combined with the reinforced armor would mean it could deliver some powerful attacks in hand to hand combat. A punch to the head by someone wearing that could kill him. Even if he was wearing a helmet. He needed to kill Haggar and fast.

“Hey Lance.” Said Keith as he walked over to him. He still looked kind of down about being the leader.

Lance smiled at him and got up. “Hey man. What’s up? Getting some training in?”

Keith shrugged. “Yeah… I just got back from looking for Shiro…”

“No luck?”

“Do you see Shiro standing by me?” He snapped.

“Whoa, calm down. I get it.” Said Lance. “You really want to find him… Look, maybe, now I am just saying maybe… Maybe it’s time to look to the future. Shiro is always going to be fighting by our side. He is never going to leave us. But there comes a time when we need to realise that the people we love aren’t going to come back… Not in the way we remember them.”

Keith continued to look frustrated. “I can’t give up on Shiro like that. Why am I the only one that thinks we can find him? It isn’t impossible! We did it once we can do it again! Once Shiro is back then things will go back to normal!”

“Keith, we’re flying around in a castle, in space, and we’ve been chosen by robot lions to pilot them. What part about any of this is normal?”

“... I still can’t give up on Shiro!”

“You’re not giving up on him by carrying on his legacy!” Snapped Lance. “Shiro is amazing and someone we all looked up to/ We all have you to look to now. I know you can do this. I believe in you! The Black Lion chose you! Not me, not Allura, not Pidge, not Hunk, not Coran, you! They chose you! No matter how much you try to run from your destiny you know it’s true.” He put his hands on Keith’s shoulders and stared into his eyes. “Keith You are the Black Paladin. I will follow you to the end of the universe and back. That is how much I believe in you.”

Keith’s face went bright red. Honest to god bright red. Was he embarrassed? The great Keith Kogane was getting embarrassed from getting a talking to from Lance? Well, Lance was going to save that mental image to laugh at later.

He looked away from Lance and sighed. “You really believe in me that much huh?”

“Of course I do.” Said Lance. “I’ve always believed in you Keith. I always will.” His stomach started to growl and Lance took a step back. “Huh, I guess I have been here for a while… I’m going to go and grab something to eat. Don’t train too hard.”

“Says the guy that always leaves with bloodied knuckles.”

“Fair enough.” Said Lance. He grinned at Keith and shot him finger guns. “Well you should know by now, I’m a bit of a hypocrite. See you at dinner.” 

***

A few days later Lance was sitting in the hanger polishing Red’s paws. Today was the day that Keith found Shiro’s clone and bring him back. He still didn’t know how he was going to react to the clone. He still needed to smile and pretend that everything was fine, when it wasn’t.

The only thing keeping him calm at the moment was Red. He could feel a surprisingly calming presence coming from the typically fiery lion. Even a lion was emotionally charged as Red knew it was best to keep Lance calm. 

Suddenly Coran’s voice came over the ship’s intercom in an excited manner. _“He found him! Keith found him! We’re going to warp to his position now!”_

Lance could feel the dread building up inside. He was too nervous about this. He wanted to just shoot the clone in the face the second he saw him. But that would just cause too much controversy on the team.

The rest of the team quickly made it to the hanger. They were all excited and shocked that Shiro was actually alive. That Keith had been right not to give up hope. Lance wanted to slap them and tell them they were wrong. They were all wrong and letting Haggar onto their ship.

Hunk grinned and nudged Lance’s arm when the Black Lion returned to the hanger with the Galra ship. “Can you believe it? Keith actually found him. We have Shiro back.”

“Yeah… It’s a miracle alright.” Said Lance, though he said it with a hint of sarcasm and a touch of malice. How was he going to deal with clone Shiro?”


	15. Close

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who almost figures out the truth about Lance because he kind of slips up a little? Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Everyone was happy. Of course they were. Why wouldn’t they be? Shiro was back. Everyone loved Shiro. Lance hated it. Especially this new Shiro’s stupid looking vest. Why the hell was the collar so high? He should have known that was a sign that this Shiro was pure evil. The way he walked and talked… It all just pissed him off. But he had to just smile and pretend that everything was fine.

Keith was just so happy to see that Shiro was back and that really pissed Lance off. This wasn’t Shiro. No one should have been happy that he was there. Why did no one understand that this Shiro was evil? Like seriously. He totally looked like a complete prick.

Lance just decided to be as pleasant as he needed to be before he could make his way to the training room again. He had bulked up a lot faster than he had in the previous timeline. This was good. He was getting stronger. He needed to get stronger.

He heard the doors open up and looked over to see Shiro walking in. He smiled at Lance and happily walked over to him. “Hey Lance. How are you? I’ve gone and caught up with pretty much everyone except you. Thanks for keeping Keith in check while I was gone.”

“Yeah, think nothing of it.” Said Lance in an aloof manner.

Shiro just smiled at him. “You did really well. I’m proud of you.”

“Yeah…”

“... Is there something wrong Lance?”

He sighed a little and looked over at Shiro. “Remember how I said I was having those weird deja vu premonitions?”

“Oh yeah…” Said Shiro. He seemed to have forgotten that. “Well, I guess it was wrong. I mean, I’m still here and alive, right?”

“... Yeah.”

Shiro frowned a little at that. “Something wrong Lance?”

“... It’s nothing. I’m just tired.” Said Lance. “I’ve gotten into a new routine going on. That’s all. Anyway, want to talk to me about anything else?”

“I’m just checking in.” Reassured Shiro.

“Okay.”

Shiro sighed and crossed his arms. “Okay Lance. Something is clearly bugging you. What is wrong?”

Lance sighed and just shook his head. “My predictions have always come true so far. So why are you still alive?”

“Maybe it was just some weird dream?”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” Said Lance. He cracked his knuckles and sighed. “Look, I’m glad you’re back but I find all of this really, really suspicious… Like, the fact you escaped the Galra twice seems unrealistic. You even had help from the Blade the first time.”

Shiro didn’t look very happy with what Lance had just said. “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying that I trust you, but there’s no way in hell that I don’t think you being here isn’t part of some Galra plan.” Said Lance coldly. “I mean, for all we know you’re just some clone that Haggar planted here that she can use to spy on us. Like some sleeper agent.” The shock on Shiro’s face made Lance wonder. He wondered if Haggar had heard him and knew that he knew exactly what she was doing. Before Shiro could say anything Lance laughed. “I’m just messing with you. I’m just kind of stressed and wondering how the lion thing is going to work out now. I mean, You’re back to being the Black paladin and Keith will want Red back, and Blue made it clear to me that she wants Allura so… Looks like I might be out of a job.”

Shiro looked slightly relieved when he said that and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry Lance. I don’t think Black wants me back as their Paladin at the moment. I think they like Keith.You all work well together.”

“Yeah, we do.” Said Lance. “Anyway, I’m gonna hit the pool now that I’m done here. Good to have you back Shiro.” He smiled and patted Shiro’s shoulder and walked off. He needed to get out of the room and far away from Shiro. He really needed healthier ways to deal with his anger before he blew up in his face.

***

Shiro was kind of confused by Lance’s actions, and his words did kind of cut deep and disturb him. He did say he was joking, but it was pretty weird that he was able to escape the Galra so easily. Then again it wasn’t easy. He had struggled to get out there and it was through Keith’s persistence that they found him.

He smiled a little at that thought and went to Keith’s room. Keith was a little surprised to see that he was there but happily let him in. Keith was very happy to see him again, and welcomed him into his room.

“Hey Shiro. What’s up?” He asked.

“Um, this is kind of about Lance.” Shiro admitted.

“Yeah?”

“Well, he seems really strange.” He admitted. “He’s been acting really cold towards me.”

Keith shrugged. “Lance is just very focused these days… Ever since you vanished he’s been really… Well, he’s been more focused. It’s been good for the most part. He’s really been able to keep everyone focused on the mission. It makes me question why the Black Lion didn’t choose him.”

Shiro nodded in agreement. “Yeah, Lance does have some very good qualities… But I know Black would choose you.”

“Yeah, I guess…”

“Speaking of Lance… Do you still have a crush on him?” Shiro knew that Keith had feelings towards Lance. He had known Keith long enough to know the way he would act around his crushes. Keith had been confiding more in Lance and Shiro would have been blind if he didn’t see the way Keith looked at him.

Keith blushed and quickly looked away from Shiro. It was clear that he was still crushing on Lance. Shiro wanted to know what was going on with that. He was sure something must have happened while he was away.

“Come on Keith, you know you want to tell me.” He teased

Keith continued to look away and pout. “Nothing’s going on between us. Okay? Lance is… He’s in love with Allura. He’s said as much several times. Hell, he’s said that the reason he fights so hard is for Allura. Besides, I don’t think me confessing I like him will unify the team or anything… He probably doesn’t even like boys so no point, you know?”

“Well you never know unless you give it a shot.” Said Shiro. “Did he ever get that future thing sorted out?”

Keith looked confused. “What future thing?”

“Oh, well before that fight with Zarkon, Lance told me that he’s been having weird dreams where he’s been seeing bits and pieces of the future.” Explained Shiro. “He said I died, but I’m still here. I was just wondering if he had been talking to Coran about it? He said he was going to look into it after the battle, so I was wondering if he did.”

The extreme confusion on Keith’s face instantly let Shiro know that Keith didn’t know anything about Lance’s problem. “So, he’s a psychic?”

“Maybe? He described it as deja vu. So I guess it’s more like flashes of the future?”

Keith nodded slowly as he looked like he was slowly putting together some pieces of a much bigger puzzle. Shiro wasn’t sure he should have mentioned what Lance had said to him, but then again he would have thought that Lance might have mentioned it to the rest of the team. But apparently not.

Suddenly, Keith started to look increasingly worried. “Hey, do you think the reason he likes Allura so much is because he saw something? I mean, he kind of seemed to know where to go when we got to the castleship in the first place… Do you think he saw her?”

That was… actually a reasonable conclusion. If Lance had somehow seen bits and pieces of the future, it would explain why he acted way calmer than any teenager should have during their fights against the Galra. It was like he had seen it all before because he probably had. That might have explained why he was training so hard and talking about not being strong enough and needing to get stronger. 

Lance might have seen something far off in the future where he or the team was underprepared for a situation that might have cost some of them their lives, or even the war. Lance was obsessed with training to prevent something he saw in the future.

“D-do you think he knew I was Galra?” Asked Keith. “Like before everyone else did? That might explain why he wasn’t that surprised when I came back. I…” Keith got this distant look in his eyes before he seemed to come to a sudden revelation. “I was talking to him when I first found out and he was saying that my mother was a good person… Like he actually knew about her. Maybe he knows more about her then he let on…” Keith quickly started to make his way to the door.

Shiro quickly grabbed him by the arm. “Whoa, hold up there Keith. Where are you going?”

“I’m going to confront Lance of course!” Snapped Keith. “If he knows about me and my family then I have a damn right to know about that too!” He sounded pained and hurt. 

Keith never liked showing himself to people. Shiro knew that. Keith had built up hundreds of walls. Shiro wasn’t even sure that he himself had managed to break down every one of them, but he knew he was probably the closest. But the hurt in his voice sounded odd to him. There was a much deeper emotional hurt than the anger he would usually display if someone kept family secrets from him. He remembered how badly Keith pitched a fit over some of his father’s things getting damaged.

“This is about Lance, isn’t it?” Asked Shiro. “You want to know if you even have a chance with him or if he ends up with Allura?”

Keith gritted his teeth and pulled his arm away from Shiro. “Well, wouldn’t you be curious? Shouldn’t I at least know if I’m wasting my time pining after someone for months even though they have already said they love someone else? I want to know if I should hold out hope or just give up… Though knowing my luck I should just give up anyway…”

Shiro sighed heavily and ran his fingers through his hair. “Keith. We don’t even know if Lance really can see the future in any sense. He could have just eaten some really weird space food and got sick from it which made him get weird hallucinations he thinks are deja vu.”

“... I guess…” Muttered Keith. “Honestly that probably makes more sense than Lance being able to see the future… But he should have told us something was up.”

“Considering all the weird things that have happened to us, maybe he felt like it was the least of our worries? Also, he told me I was going to die, yet I’m still here. What does that say about any possible fortune telling abilities he may or may not have?”

“... True.” Keith grumbled and pouted. He crossed his arms like an unruly child. “Okay, maybe I jumped the gun a little on that one… It’s probably nothing and I’m just being paranoid.”

“Hey, I’m the one was mad PTSD here. I got captured by the Galra twice.”

“Pretty sure if we don’t have PTSD now we’re all going to have it by the end.” Said Keith. “Whenever that is… Anyway, we need to bring you up to speed on Lotor.”

Shiro nodded in agreement. “Yeah, Allura has mentioned him. Zarkon’s son… I am quite surprised Zarkon even has a son.”

“Same… I don’t even want to know how that happened.” Muttered Keith. “Anyway, the point is we kind of think he might be trying to take over the empire. We have it on good authority that Zarkon got damaged pretty badly in the last fight… You wounded him really badly.”

Shiro shrugged. “We damaged him. We were really close to taking him down. But we will get him next time. We won’t let him win.”

“I know Shiro.” I trust you won’t randomly vanish on us again?”

Shiro chuckled a little and smiled. “Of course not. I’ve already done it twice. I’m not planning a third time.”

***

Dinner felt a little off to Lance. Then again of course it would. He had to get rid of clone Shiro without making it look suspicious. He also had to not destroy his body so that Allura could take Shiro’s consciousness out of the Black Lion and into the clone body. Fixing the future was hard.

At least he was having a delightful conversation with Allura. Well, actually Allura and Coran were talking about food with Hunk. But Lance was enjoying listening. There was something enchanting about the way she talked. It was with such elegance and made him yearn to hear her pronounce his name as Lonce instead of Lance.

He made conversation when he felt like he had something insightful or witty to say. Though Pidge was offering up the most sass as usual. He’d glace back over at Shiro and Keith every once in a while to see if they were going to offer anything to this conversation.

Shiro did once in a while, but Keith seemed to be brooding. Which wasn’t that odd to Lance. It was around this time that Keith started to think more about doing missions for the Blade. Which had honestly always annoyed Lance, but it was all for the good of the team in the end. Keith became a stronger leader and learned who his mother was. So it was kind of good that this was happening anyway.

He almost wanted to ask what was going on with their team leader, but he doubted any good would come of it. Keith could take care of himself. He always did… And even had had to admit that the clone did take a little while to show its true colours. So Keith could have some kind of support. At least for a little while.


	16. Confrontation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is a little longer than usual. Lots of emotions and slight miscommunications going on. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Things continued to be strained between Lance, Keith, and Shiro. Lance just did his best to ignore it. He probably shouldn’t have said anything to Shiro. He should have just agreed that he was wrong and left it at that? That probably would have been the mature thing to do. Then again, Lance had never been the most mature when it came to anything. 

He thought about this as he zoned out fighting Lotor and his generals while they were trying to steal a teludav lens from the old Galra base. The one they used when Shiro fucking died. It probably wasn’t the best thing to think about while fighting the enemy, but Lance was a boy with a lot of things on his mind.

They managed to get away and were going over the battle. They did this after every major battle. It was more important to go over this one since Lotor was involved. Lance was fine with this. He was planning to kill Lotor some time when he had tricked the team into thinking he was trustworthy. Preferably when they just captured him and were deciding what to do with him. He was pretty sure he could convince Coran to help him possibly poison the Galra and make it look like an accident.

Shiro shook his head. “We’ll never be able to find him unless we can figure out his plan. We’re totally missing the big picture.”

Pidge shrugged. “How about this question: why was Voltron made out of the same material as that comet? What’s so special about it?”

“My father discovered another comet like that before I was born.” Said Allura.

“Your father… and Zarkon.” Said Coran in a solemn manner.

“This is back when Zarkon was the Black Lion’s Paladin?” Questioned Hunk.

“Before that.” Said Coran. “Before Alfor build the Lions.”

Shiro frowned and crossed his arms. “I know this is painful to talk about, but if we’re going to stop Lotor, it’s time we heard the rest of the story.”

So Lance stood back and listened as Coran told the story of the paladins. How the original Paladins were just five individuals from different races that had an alliance. That alliance formed into a warrior’s bond as they worked together to rid their system of those who would do it harm. Zarkon of Daibazaal, Alfor of Altea, Gyrgan from Rygnirath, Trigel of the Dalterion Belt, and Blaytz from Nalquod.

How the Paladins found a black comet that had collided with Daibazaal and when it was removed, they found a small glowing hole. It was encased in a purple transparent dome with an observation deck built within it for research reasons. There it was discovered that the comet could pass between realities, and there Zarkon met Honerva, his future wife. Alfor looked into the properties of the comet’s ore while Honerva performed research of the rift on Daibazaal.

Soon after Allura was born and Zarkon married Honerva, the Altean woman discovered the energy properties of the quintessence within the rift and the idea of an everlasting energy source formed in their mind. This could have ended all wars forever as no one would ever have to fight for energy. They would always have it.

But Honerva wasn’t exercising caution and managed to capture a creature from another reality using the rift as a gateway. Her experiment caused a much more deadly creature to explode out of the rift. This would cause the complete and utter destruction of Daibazaal and all life.

It was then that Alfor revealed the Lion’s to the others and they became Paladins. As they fought the rift creature they first formed Voltron and fought back the creature. Alfor wanted the rift to close, but Honerva wanted it to stay open despite the dangers. Zarkon sided with his wife.

After that. Voltron made a name for itself and began an era of peace and prosperity. Voltron became the defender of the universe. Everyone knew of and revered the Lions, the Paladins, and Voltron. It was a calm time, however the experiments were destroying Diabazaal.

Working for so long with quintessence had corrupted her. Neither she nor Zarkon seemed to care that the planet would be destroyed if the work on the rift continued. Then, when Honerva fell ill, Zarkon tricked the other Paladins into using Voltron to gather the quintessence she needed.

But in the end they both succumbed to overexposure of quintessence. The rift destabilized Diabazaal, the planet was evacuated, and Alfor closed the rift the only way he knew how… By destroying the planet. It was believed that Honerva and Zarkon were dead and a state funeral was held for them.

However, the corruption in the rift was too strong. Zarkon was still alive and was hellbent on getting more quintessence, which meant he needed Voltron. Only Voltron could open a rift between realites and thus the war began. Peaceful planets were destroyed, the paladin’s fell, but Alfor managed to send the Lions away and out of Zarkon’s grasp before the mad emperor delivered the killing blow. Then to avenge the destruction of his planet, that he and Honerva actually caused, he destroyed Altea.

Lance hated that story. Honerva had been a bitch from the start. He didn’t even know if she actually loved Zarkon to begin with. From the way she was obsessed with research he was pretty sure that she only became his wife to gain better access to the rift. It only solidified his conviction to annihilate her from this reality. She should have never been born.

“So that’s Lotor’s plan!” Said Pidge in an excited manner. She always got excited when she solved something. “To cross into other universes and get the purest quintessence possible!”

Keith, ever serious, clenched his fists. “No matter what, we have to stop him.”

Coran’s story seemed to spur the rest of the team on and steel their resolve. Which was a good thing. Everyone needed to be focused and get with the program. They needed to defeat Zarkon at any cost.

***

After a few good hours of training, Lance made his way to the observation deck to look out at the stars. Soon Keith would start talking to Kolivan and he would start doing missions for the Blade. Eventually he would leave, and although Lance was sad about that, it meant that Keith would find his mother and really come into his own.

Lance smiled a little at that thought. He couldn’t wait to see Keith as the man he would become. The man that truly was meant to lead Voltron and then the man that would lead the Blade of Marmora in his life past the war. Lance had always wondered why Keith had never settled down with anyone in his original timeline.

Hunk had Shay, Shiro had Curtis, Coran was even dating some mer lady from that mermaid planet the last time they had talked. Pidge was an aromantic asexual who had said countless times when they were older if she needed something to satisfy her she would make it herself. Lance himself would only give himself to Allura, but Keith… Keith didn’t seem to be aromantic or asexual.

Then again Keith had always been a secretive guy. Maybe he was a player and had a few different aliens on his phone, all wanting to shack up with the former Black Paladin? That thought made him chuckle. Between saving worlds Keith bangs the latest hottie was really funny to him. Keith had opened up a lot more to him since the war. He kind of missed cracking open a can of shitty IPA and complaining about how it tastes like dish soap strained through a dirty sock.

As he thought about his alternate timeline he hardly noticed when Keith walked in and stood kind of close to him. He was silent for what seemed like a few minutes before Lance noticed him and broke the silence between them. It was kind of awkward.

“Need something mullet?” He asked.

“I guess…” Muttered Keith. He sounded troubled. “I’ve just… This is going to sound so weird… I don’t really know how to bring this up. Shiro said I shouldn’t mention it but...”

“Just spit it out mullet.”

“Shiro told me you could see the future.”

“Oh that…” Muttered Lance. Of course Shiro would have said something. Time to lie his ass off again. “Look, it’s not that big of a deal.”

“How can it not be that big of a deal?” Asked Keith. “You can’t just shrug this off and pretend that it’s nothing! You’ve been way too calm when fighting! You’ve seen it, haven’t you. You’ve seen everything. You knew I was half Galra. You knew I was going to become the Black Paladin. You know about my mum! What the hell Lance? What the fuck is going on?”

Lance sighed a little as he thought about what to say. He still felt like if he told Keith the truth then he would be putting everyone in danger. They could start to put more faith in his knowledge and by doing so, change the future for the worst. He’d just lie again.

“Look, I talked to Coran about it and it was a mix of cosmic radiation along with some weird space food and space sickness.” Said Lance calmly. “Earth gets hit with cosmic radiation all the time. Just on the night Shiro crashed I was in the right place at the right time and got slapped with just the right amount at the right frequency. It was only temporary and wore off a bit after Shiro vanished.”

“So you can’t see the future?”

“Nopee, and it was more like deja vu.” Clarified Lance. “Kind of like when you have a dream, forget about it and then you see something that makes you remember it later on. That’s just what was happening to me. That’s all.”

Keith still looked upset. “So… You can’t do it anymore?”

“Nope.”

“... Did you know I was Galra before I did?”

Lance nodded. “Yeah, I did. But I stand by what I said about it making no difference. You’re still Keith Kogane. Nothing changed about you from the day we met. Being half Galra is fine. I don’t care about who your parents were. I care about who you are.”

Keith was starting to go red in the face, but he clenched his jaw and looked down at the floor with his hands balled into fists. “But you saw other things too, right? Things like me becoming the Black Paladin? That’s why you kept saying you wanted me to be the leader and supporting me. Right? It was going to happen and I wasn’t going to get much of a choice?”

“Well… Kind of I guess? Like, there is no point in fighting something that is going to happen and work out for the best, right?” Lance really didn’t understand why Keith was so angry all of a sudden. Okay, he had been lying for pretty much as long as they have known each other, but it was all for a good reason.

“So what about Allura?” He asked.

Lance gave Keith a confused look. Why would he want to know about her? “What about Allura?”

“You’ve said you’re in love with her.” Said Keith. “You’ve been in love with her since you first saw her… Did you have some weird future vision of the two of you together?”

Lance could feel himself blush. He had dreamed many times of the future he could have had with Allura. Their wedding, their children, their children growing up and having families of their own. Lance had dreamed of their ideal life after the war, if she had survived. Sure it was just a fantasy he had been holding onto for years, but it was just that. A dream.

He couldn’t have been thinking about it for more than five seconds before Keith let out a heavy sigh. He looked defeated. “Right… I get it… Whatever…” Keith walked out of the room and left. Lance just shrugged it off.

After their talk Keith started to work with the Blade. Which was a really good thing. Everything was right on track. Soon Keith would fail to show up and Shiro would, unfortunately, become the Black Paladin again. But Keith would go and become great. Which was what he was always meant to be.

Unfortunately, something happened that he didn’t really understand. Keith had become really cold towards him and increasingly frustrated. Even the other Paladin’s asked if they had been fighting, which meant forming Voltron was getting harder. Then again Keith was hardly around anymore with his special Galra training.

***

“Okay, what is going on with you and Lance?” Shiro asked Keith one evening. He had cornered Keith in the training room by himself after a long day. Between Voltron and the Blade, Keith hadn’t had much time to do some solo training. Now he was tired and just wanted to sleep. He didn’t need Shiro interrogating him.

“What about Lance?” He asked. “What’s there to talk about?” 

Shiro just shook his head. “Clearly you two had some kind of fight. You need to talk it out and-”

“But there is nothing to talk about.” Muttered Keith. “I… I got all the answers I need. I confronted Lance about that psychic stuff.”

“Keith…” Shiro didn’t look impressed. “What did you do?”

Keith shrugged, unable to look him in the eye. “I talked to him about it and apparently Coran said it was some kind of weird space radiation thing and some weird food allergy thing or something? He stopped having future vision, dream things after you vanished… But now I know I’ll never have anything with him.”

“Oh Keith… What happened?” Shiro had that pitying tone in his voice. Keith hated that. That sound of pity made his body involuntarily start to tear up. He hated that.

“Lance and Allura end up together in the future.” Muttered Keith. “He must have seen her. Probably already married to her with kids… Living in some house with a dog or whatever the Altean equivalent is… I know I’m being childish but I can’t help it. Lance is destined to end up with her. So yeah…”

“You’re upset that you now know the truth behind Lance’s devotion to Allura?” Asked Shiro. “What good could have ever come from seeking that out?”

“I just wanted to know.” Said Keith quietly. “I know I’m stupid, but at least now I know I’ll never have a chance with him… I need time to come to terms with that.” He felt confused and ashamed by his own emotions. He just needed to give up. He really did. Lance was just working towards the future he knew was going to happen.

“You know… I have been thinking a lot about Adam.”

Keith was a little surprised by the sudden change of topic, but he was glad for it. “Yeah? What about him?”

“Well, I vanished a while ago.” Said Shiro. “He probably assumes I’m dead. Maybe he has given up on me and is seeing someone else? But you know what? I’ve realized it doesn’t matter. I just want to make the universe a safer place for Adam and people like him. Even if he doesn’t love me anymore and is with someone else, I want him to be happy. Do you want Lance to be happy?”

“Well, yeah…” Muttered Keith. Despite how upset he was at the inevitable, he loved him and wanted Lance to be happy. Maybe he was just destined to be alone or something? He was already kind of used to everyone important leaving him for one reason or another. What was one more person?

Maybe he was just being selfish? What would he have done if he was in Lance’s shoes? The future was a tricky thing. He liked to think it wasn’t predestined, but if it was and Lance was right that he was going to end up with Allura, then he wanted that for him. For them. He had been bitter enough already and it was affecting his ability to lead Voltron.

“You’ve given me a lot to think about…” Said Keith. He needed to really think about his future as the leader of Voltron and what he was going to do with the Blade. He kept going on missions with them and if he was honest he liked not being the leader. He liked just being able to follow orders. He had a lot of thinking to do.

***

About a week later Lance was alone in his room, laying on his bed, and looking up at the ceiling. They still continued to go on missions, liberating planets and what not from Zarkon’s control, but Lance was still planning. He needed to kill Haggar before he killed Lotor. He just had no idea how to get to her without anyone noticing.

At the moment she was probably beside Zarkon while he recovered, but soon that would be over and he’d be able to lead the empire again. Then there would be the falling out with Lotor, but he still needed to find Haggar and kill them. This was all so damn annoying to plan, but he would do this. If he didn’t then Haggar would cause Allura’s death.

There was a sudden knock at his door and Lance quickly sat up. “Come in?”

Much to his surprise it was Keith that walked in. This was probably the first time they had spoken one on one since the whole deja vu thing. Keith looked kind of down. Which Lance thought was kind of weird. What was their fearless leader doing looking so down?

“Something wrong Keith?” He asked.

Keith just shrugged. “Nothing… I just haven’t been much of a leader lately…”

“What are you talking about? You’re doing a fine job.”

“You really think so?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Even though I’ve been cold to you?”

Lance shrugged. “Hey, it’s nothing. You were upset with me and yeah, it was kind of a big deal, but nothing has really happened since the Shiro thing, so, no more future vision. I didn’t see a reason to bring it up and… I didn’t want to influence anything and change anything too dramatically… I’m sorry.”

“No it’s fine I… I guess I was mostly pissed because if you saw it then it means that it can’t be changed, right?” Asked Keith. “No point getting mad at something that I won’t be able to change…”

“I guess? What are you getting at?” He asked.

Keith shrugged. “I guess I’m just saying I’m sorry I blew up at you like that… You had your reasons for doing what you did… Are we cool now?”

Lance smiled and held his hand out to him. “Hey man, we’ve always been cool. No hard feelings.”

“Okay.” Keith shook his hand and might have squeezed his hand just a little too tightly. “I know what I’m fighting for now.” He said quietly.

“Hmm?”

“You know how you said a while ago that to be a good soldier we need to fight for something more than just the universe? We need something more personal?”

Lance nodded and crossed his arms. “Yeah. I remember that conversation, So what are you going to fight for?”

Keith got quiet for a moment and he looked kind of embarrassed. “Look, this is going to sound really stupid but… I don’t really have anyone on Earth. No friends, no family. Nothing. Shiro is my family. He’s pretty much my brother but he’s here leading Voltron again and um… What I’m trying to say is that… Not counting Shiro, you’re kind of my best friend out here.”

“... I am?”

Keith nodded. “Yeah, you are and… You’re fighting for Allura and since she is who you are who you’re fighting for, I’m going to fight for the future where you two can live the lives you deserve.”

Lance was both surprised and very touched by Keith’s words. “Thanks man, that really means a lot to me.”

Keith just smiled and shrugged. “Think nothing of it. As the team leader It’s meant to be my duty to look out for everyone, right?”

“How mature of you mullet.” Said Lance with a grin.

“Yeah… Oh, one more thing. You should probably mention to the others about that temporary future vision thing you had going on. They’ll be pissed if you kept it from them.”

“True… Yeah, I really should mention it…” Agreed Lance. He would need to talk to Coran about it first so he could back him up. But hopefully this would clear up any of the underlying tension going on with the rest of the team and himself. “You’re always coming up with good ideas.”

“If you say so… Later Lance.”

“Later Keith.” Lance waved at Keith as he quickly left his room. When he was gone he couldn’t help but let out a laugh. Keith had actually matured emotionally a lot faster than he thought. It was nice. But now was not the time to dwell on that. He now had to make plans on how to bullshit his way around letting everyone know that he could see the future for a bit to hide the fact he was from the future. Time travel was hard.


	17. Split team

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now we are onto season 4. Keith's departure is not really delved into detail very much because this is from Lance's perspective and Lance sees this as all going to plan and is pretty much just going through the motion of it. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

As predicted, Keith started to prioritize the Blade of Marmora more and more until it eventually happened. The team had to rescue a rebel convoy that was under attack by the Galra, and Keith was a no show. So the Black Lion accepted Shiro as their Paladin again and they saved the day. 

Which of course led to the inevitable confrontation between Keith and the rest of the Paladins. As much as Lance hated the fact that he left them in the first place, but he knew that this was important for Keith to grow as a person. He was amazing and would continue to be amazing. Soon he was going to be the man he remembered. The slightly taller, grizzled, older man.

He felt oddly empty when Keith left. A lot more than he did last time. He was pretty sure it was because he had much more of history with Keith in his own timeline. Yeah, that was it. They could figure out how they felt another time.

Right now he had some down time between missions before Coran went a little batshit crazy with the Voltron show. There were just a few missions in between then so it was mostly breaking into Galra bases. Oh, and Pidge was going to find Matt soon… And he was going to flirt with Allura. 

He really needed to take some time to actually romance her this time around. He couldn’t just flirt and swoop in when she was feeling really down on herself. He never felt that comfortable about how they started dating. It did feel kind of shallow and exploitative. He was going to make her feel like the princess she really was.

Lance found Allura in the kitchen getting herself something to drink. He walked up beside her and started to look through the cupboard, finding different ingredients to make a drink that he knew Allura loved, but didn’t discover yet.

“Hey Allura. Can I interest you in a drink?” He asked.

She shrugged. “Sure… But what are you making?”

“Hmm, just a little something. An experiment if you would. Let me know if it tastes horrible.” Lance crushed a few red things, juiced some purple things, mashed up some yellow things, and stirred it all together in a cup with some water. “Here.”

Allura took the drink from him and frowned a little before she took a sip. “... Oh wow, this is really good.” She said.

Lance grinned and made himself one too and sat with her at the table. “Yeah? You like it?”

“Oh yes, it’s very, very good. Thank you Lance.” 

“No problem.” They sat quietly for a few minutes before Lance spoke up. “Hey Allura, are you okay? Like, with Keith leaving and all that?”

Allura pursed her lips for a moment before her shoulders slumped. “Yes and no. I am happy that he has found his path but at the same time he… Despite my feelings towards him being half Galra. Do you think I pushed him away? It was mostly shock. I just… I really pushed him away when he found out who he was. I should have been more supportive. Like you said, Voltron is a family. I split the team…”

“But you made up with him.”

“But he could have still held it against me.” Said Allura. She sighed sadly and looked into her cup. “I feel like I broke up the team… I could have given the Blue Lion back to you and-”

“Don’t.” Lance held Allura’s hand and smiled gently at her. “Blue was never meant to be my Lion. She just knew I was the right Paladin to bring her to the real Blue Paladin. You were always meant to be the Blue Paladin Allura. Don’t you ever forget that.”

She smiled slightly at him. “Even though I wear pink?” 

“Especially because you are wearing pink.” Said Lance. Looking at her and smiling he could feel his heart soften a little. Allura was so perfect. Well, she wasn’t really perfect. She had her flaws, but that was okay. No one was perfect. “Allura, I feel like you were destined to be a Paladin. The Lions always know who they need as their Paladin.”

Allura smiled at him and gently squeezed his hand. “Thank you Lance. You always know what to say. You are an amazing person.”

Lance blushed a little and looked away from her. “Aw, you’re the amazing one here Allura. By the way, we’re going to be passing through the Revarbiar system soon, right? Coran said the nebulas there are beautiful.”

“Oh yes, I believe that’s in about two quintants?” She questioned.

Lance nodded. “Yeah. So I was thinking, bar any sudden missions, we are under attack, or a convoy needs Voltron… Maybe we could just go to the observation deck and watch the stars? I don’t know much about the universe, and it might be cool to hear you talk about them.”

The princess thought about it for a moment. “Well, that does sound lovely… We could have some more of this drink you made and talk about the stars.”

He couldn’t help but grin. “Yeah? I should bring a blanket and spread it out for us.”

“That’s a good idea.” She said. “I’ll bring some pillows too… Oh, and Hunk can make snacks.”

Lance was surprised to hear that. “Um…”

“And Coran would be able to tell the best stories.” She said with an excited look in her eyes. “Pidge would love to hear about it too, and Shiro.” Allura grinned and held Lance’s hands. The look of joy on her face was radiating. “Lance, this is a perfect team bonding activity. I shall go and inform Coran at once.” She quickly got up and left the room.

“Oh sure, no problem… Bye Allura…” When she was gone, Lance sighed and slumped back in his chair. He was trying to set up a romantic situation so he could confess his feelings towards her. But maybe this was a little too soon? Team bonding was still okay. He’d try again later.

***

At the Blade of Marmora headquarters, Keith was visiting Regris in their medbay. After the last mission where Regris was caught in an explosion he still didn’t know how he survived. There was the explosion and he and Kolivan found him back in their escape vehicle. Keith was very confused by that and wasn’t given a full explanation because Regris was spitting out blood and a few teeth at the time.

But now, back at the medbay, Keith might as well see what was going on. He sat by Regris while the Blade’s doctor pulled cotton balls out of his mouth and scolded Regris for getting caught in the first place. Regris did not look happy.

“How many times have you been told those things don’t work very well?” Asked the doctor. “Seriously, reverse engineering that thing is finicky and hard. You’re lucky all your bones didn’t shatter.”

“What thing?” Asked Keith.

Regris and the doctor shared confused looks. “It’s a short range teleportation device.” Said the doctor. “Ulaz got the design from Voltron. We thought you would have known about them?”

“No?”

“Huh, that’s weird.” Muttered the doctor. “Anyway, you can’t rely on them all the time. Might be best to just get blown up next time.”

“I’d rather be alive if I can help it…” Muttered Regris.

The doctor rolled their eyes and started to pack cotton into his mouth. “Yeah, yeah. Just eat soft food and no training for spicolian movement.” Regris huffed and nodded while his cheeks looked all puffed out like he had tried to eat a bee. It was kind of funny. “Do you need anything Keith?”

Keith shook his head. “No I was… I was just seeing if Regris was okay. That’s all.”

The doctor nodded and made a shooing motion. “Well he is fine. Now off you go. Be gone.”

Keith frowned a little, but left the medbay. He walked through the halls of the Blade’s HQ, passing by several Blade members. Many of them were talking to each other quietly and quickly exchanging information. They would acknowledge him with a no as he passed by and he would do the same back.

The Blade was very different to Voltron. It was kind of like a stricter version of the Garrison back on earth. However, he was thriving in this environment. Everyone was very like minded and Keith felt like he responded more to the Galra way of life compared to the human way. It was kind of funny. On earth he was considered a troubled child, but to the Galra he was considered a rather well behaved and upstanding Galra citizen.

It was nice, but there were a few things that Keith missed about being around other humans, especially team Voltron. He missed the down time. The Blade were almost always training and preparing for the next mission. He missed Hunk’s cooking. The food the Blade were more used to the bland food he had to eat during the first few weeks in the castle ship. The Blade also seemed to like their solitude when they did have time for themselves.”

Keith went back to his room on the base and laid down on his cot. Surprisingly the room, although built for a Galra, was smaller than his room on the castleship. He looked up at the ceiling and sighed sadly. He missed being able to talk to his friends. Especially Lance.

He was kind, smart, stood up for him when everyone was looking at him like he had betrayed Voltron for existing, and… Lance only had eyes for Allura. He couldn’t even really hate Allura either. She was smart, pretty, kind, passionate and over all, just a good person. Sure she kind of blew up at him for the Galra thing, but once she cooled down and they talked they had made up.

Keith could just imagine their future together. Allura and Lance, all smiling and happy. Allura would be in some wedding dress. She would look like a goddess and Lance would be standing in a white suit. They would hold hands, kiss, and get married. Everyone would cheer and be happy. Keith would be there in the crowd. Everyone would be happy for them, and so would Keith because Lance was happy. He’d get the happy ending he deserved to have with Allura, and Allura deserved to have a guy like Lance.

But what did he deserve? What did someone like Keith deserve? What was his happy ending? Maybe he was just meant to join the Blade and help the universe? That wouldn’t be so bad. Saving lives, kicking ass, people being able to live their own lives in peace. That was what he was meant to do as a Paladin right? Putting the universe and everyone else above himself?

Before Keith could dwell on those thoughts for too much longer there was a knock at his door and Ulaz walked in. He seemed a little distracted by whatever information he was looking at on his datapad.

“Hello Keith. I hope I am not interrupting anything?”

“No, it’s fine.” He sat up and sighed. “Do you need something?”

“I have some more information on Kuron and Kugutsu.” Said Ulaz. “I thought it would be best to try and talk to you about it to make sure that I’m not repeating information when I am talking to Lance.”

“Huh?” Keith had never heard of either of those terms before. “What are you talking about?”

Now Ulaz looked confused. “Kuron and Kugutsu? Lance was adamant that I find out information about these things… Has he not mentioned it to you?”

“No… What is it?”

Ulaz was still very confused but explained to Keith what Kuron and Kugutsu were to him. It was strange. Keith was kind of confused as to why Lance was keeping this a secret. Had Lance mentioned anything offhanded when he was still with Voltron? Maybe? He wasn’t sure. He might have?

“And that is all I have told Lance about it so far.” Said Ulaz calmly.

Keith nodded as he took this all in. “So… Kuron is some kind of Galra clone, soldier thing and Kugutsu is armor for the Kuron?”

“That is as far as I can tell.” Said Ulaz. “I wanted to inform Lance that there is talk about starting to use the Kugutsu. Which is dangerous because of some of the design aspects. But it is kind of difficult to fine tune it to a body or something… I don’t really understand some of the information I am getting. I just wanted to inform Voltron that they might encounter a Kugutsu soon.”

“I see…” Keith was still confused about why Lance never mentioned anything about this stuff to them. Maybe he had talked to Pidge about it? It did seem like it was more of a Pidge and Hunk kind of thing. It was probably something Lance didn’t think he needed to know about.

***

“-And that’s why Jorganor has a moon and several satellites orbiting it.” Said Coran with a grin. The group was all grouped together on the observation deck as they passed through the Revarbiar system. Nebulas of pink, blue, and purple. Maybe there were hints of red in there too? The stars looked like diamonds.

It was just as beautiful as Lance remembered it the first time they traveled through it. He had wanted to travel through there after the war was over, but there was no real reason to. He had wanted to go there with Allura. He couldn’t do that after she was dead. But here she was now. All smiling and happy as she sat next to him and Pidge. She was hooked on every word Coran was saying. He loved how her eyes shone when she looked excited and happy.

“So they blew up their own moon?” Asked Hunk.

“Yep, but only the smaller one.” Said Coran. “Threw their whole ecosystem into chaos for a while, but it all worked out in the end.”

“Still don’t know why they blew it up.” Said Pidge. “What’s that one?” She pointed out at a bright blue star off in the distance.

“Ah, I believe that’s the Ice star… If you see another blue star with a few green planets circling it then that’s the Ice star.” Said Coran. He quickly scanned the system to see if he could spot a different blue star. “... Hmm, anyway. Shall I tell you about the Ice star?”

Hunk and Pidge excitedly agreed, along with Allura. Shiro was happy to hear Coran talk about it. Lance grinned and pretended to follow along with what Coran was saying. He had heard this story a few times before. So he just let his mind wander.

Lance’s mind drifted to Keith. The man had always been really tightlipped about what he did as a member of the Blade. He knew he was going on super secret Blade missions. Espionage, sabotage, and possible assassination? Did this mean that Keith was actually the cool ninja assassin? He couldn’t be the assassin and the samurai… He missed the dumb mullet head.

He sighed a little and looked over at Allura and smiled softly at her. She was so beautiful. He felt happy just being with her. Being by Allura’s side made him happy. But that was how love was, right? You liked being around the people you were in love with. He liked being around Allura more than anyone else. But even so, he felt like something was missing from this group. He knew it was Keith, but they would see each other again soon. 

For now, he would just go through the motions and try to romance Allura again. Hopefully next time he tried to do something with her it wouldn’t turn into a group bonding thing. If all else fails he might be able to talk to Hunk and Pidge about having a semi-romantic kind of dinner alone with Allura so he could woo her. Yeah, that might work.


	18. Eavesdropping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And things are starting to get a little weird... Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Needless to say Lance’s next few attempts to try and do something romantic with Allura didn’t turn out too well. Every time he tried to initiate something either someone would walk in or Allura would turn it into a group bonding activity. While it was disappointing, he couldn’t really complain that much. 

Maybe Allura’s mind was not on forming romantic relationships just yet? He had no idea. He just had to keep trying. Even if he and Allura didn’t get the romantic alone time he was seeking, he still enjoyed spending time with her. Just being in the same room was good enough for him. He loved how happy she was when she was around everyone else. 

After a few more days the castleship was back on Olkari and Pidge eventually left to follow up on a lead to find Matt. Lance couldn’t help but smile at that. He was really happy for her. She deserved to find her brother. The only thing that Lance found kind of disliked about the whole situation was that Matt was so happy to see Shiro. He felt so bad about it.

Shiro and Matt talked for a bit before Pidge grabbed Matt and took her brother on a tour of the ship. Lance was happy for them and let the siblings have their fun. Lance ended up walking around the capitol. He caught his reflection in some shiny piece of glass.

He took a moment to look at himself. Lance still liked how young he looked. Being young was nice, but not having those marks on his face was kind of odd to him. For most of his life he had those marks on his face. Proof that Allura will never disappear. That she loved him. That she would always be with him.

Every morning when he looked in the mirror he would see them, remember her, and blame himself. He had spent months in a few different mental health facilities on a few different planets. The one he stayed in for the majority of the time was actually one on Olkari. He video called his family every other day, and Veronica always visited when she could. The other Paladin’s came by too. Pidge and Hunk usually came together. Shiro came in and always brought him something like a puzzle book to help him keep his mind busy. Keith visited him the most.

Which Lance always found kind of weird. Keith was trying to rebuild the Blade and do some other stuff with the rest of the Galra. He shouldn’t have had time for him, but Keith was almost always there. That Keith. A man that had softened after the war. There was still a fire burning inside him, but he was so much kinder. He would listen to him talk for hours and hours about how shitty he felt for not being able to save Allura, or just sit in silence with him. 

Keith had always been there for him. It did make Lance wonder if they would have become closer to each other if Allura didn’t die. Hopefully that wouldn’t be true. He still wanted to spend time with Keith when the war was over. 

Even when Lance got out and was back to being a normal civilian on Earth, Keith would visit him. At least, he did so frequently for the first few years. Lance always figured that Keith was just making sure he was settling back into life. Then Keith just stopped showing up.

Lance didn’t know why. Keith would stay away for years. He didn’t call either. They only caught up on Allura day and Keith would apologize for being so out of contact with him, but he was doing work extremely far away from Earth and couldn’t come back as frequently. Lance believed him. At least for a while. But everyone else was seeing Keith more than him and so Lance just gave up trying. 

It hurt. It really hurt that Keith pulled away from him while staying in contact with everyone else. Then a few years later Keith started asking Lance to join the Blade. Which had really pissed him off. He didn’t understand why, after Keith had abandoned him without so much as a phone call, he wanted him to join the Blades. Lance kept saying he’d think about it. Leave Keith waiting for something that would never happen.

Maybe things would be different now if Allura stayed alive? He and Allura would get married, have kids, everyone would be extended family. Keith could be a really cool uncle… but he would probably give his future kids a knife. That was the kind of future uncle he would be.

Lance chuckled a little as he touched his cheekbones. “Yeah, he really would...”

“There you are Lance.” Said Shiro.

Lance jumped a little and spun around to face the Black Paladin. Yeah, Lance was not happy to see him. Any one on one time with Shiro these days was something he hated. He could keep it together when they were in a group, but not like this.

“Yeah Shiro?”

“Can we talk for a bit?”

“What about?” Asked Lance. “Shouldn’t you be catching up with Matt?”

Shiro shrugged. “He and Pidge have things they need to talk about first. Once they catch up I’ll have a talk with him. I just wanted to talk to you now.”

Lance sighed and leaned against the glass panel he had been looking at moments before. “What do you want to talk about?”

“You’ve been really cold and distant with me.” He said. “I don’t really understand why you’re acting like this. If this is about your suspicions about the Galra or your weird prophetic dreams then-”

“It’s not that.” Lied Lance quickly. “I’m just thinking about things. You know how it is.”

Shiro looked kind of sad. It really annoyed the hell out of Lance. “Lance, you know you can talk to me about anything, right? You can confide in me about anything. You know I won’t judge you. There’s nothing you can say that will shock me or make me think less of you.”

“... It’s really nothing Shiro.” Muttered Lance. “I’m just stressed. Zarkon is so close to being defeated, Lotor is bothering the hell out of us, Keith is gone, and we don’t know where Sam is. It’s awesome we have Matt back, but there is still so much we need to do.”

“I know.” Said Shiro. “But the way you are acting, is very antisocial and could fracture the team.”

“Why? Because I don’t like you?” Asked Lance. “I’ll follow you because you’re the Black Paladin, but there is something very off about you. I can’t pinpoint it but there is. Maybe it’s just some PTSD symptom from getting taken by the Galra again, but I feel like there is something wrong with you.”

Shiro looked increasingly frustrated and exhausted by Lance’s words. “Really? Lance, you need to stop acting so childish. I have no idea what your deal is, but seriously? Lance you need to grow up. Are you upset that your vision was wrong and I’m still alive? Are you that upset about being wrong?”

“This isn’t about that.” Grumbled Lance. “Just drop it Shiro. Okay?”

“I don’t understand why you are acting like this.” 

“I don’t understand why you’re pushing this issue.”

“We are a team.” Said Shiro. “We have to work together. We can’t have this huge split in the team because of whatever thing you have going on in your head. Get your head in the game. If we can’t work together then we can’t form Voltron.”

Lance rolled his eyes and walked past him, bumping Shiro’s shoulder as he did so. “That sounds like a you problem to me.”

***

Deep within one of many Galra battleships, Haggar watched his exchange through Shiro’s eyes. This was deeply unsettling to her. She was sure that this clone was a perfect replica of the Black Paladin. There was no way that the new Red Paladin could see right through him. She did not understand this or like this at all.

“Haggar?”

She turned around and death glared one of her Druids. “What is it Macidus?” She practically growled. Still frustrated at how the Red Paladin was stone walling Shiro.

“We have deployed several of the Kugutsu to several different outposts.” Said Macidus. One has been sent to the Jonork prison, the base on the Yomark moon, the Almahag mining base, and several have been placed on different battle cruisers under the leadership of different commanders and generals.”

Haggar nodded. “I see, so these are the ones that survived in the arena, correct?”

“Of course. Only the best in the area were given the privilege to serve the Galra empire.”

“Good… Is there any more news on his progress?”

“Do you mean Zarkon or…?”

“I already know of Emperor Zarkon’s condition.” Said Haggar in an aggravated manner.

Macidus nodded and bowed slightly to her. “Of course. Please forgive me. I meant no disrespect. He is doing well. He is more than ready to take revenge on Voltron after what they did to him.”

“Excellent.” Haggar thought for a moment. “Once he is ready and able to move independently again bring him to me. I have a mission for him that I believe that he will thoroughly enjoy. You are dismissed.”

Macidus nodded and quickly left the room. Once he was gone Haggar was able to contemplate her plan. Something was wrong with the Red Paladin. She had heard him completely describing what Shiro actually was the first time they spoke one on one. Then there was that whole thing about Lance saying he was able to see the future. This was very unsettling to her. She needed to get to the bottom of this and figure out just how much the Red Paladin actually knew. It was time for her to talk to the Red Paladin face to face.

Suddenly the doors to her room were flung open and an excitable Galra quickly ran in. “Haggar! The Emperor! He has awoken!”

***

Eventually Matt left Voltron to join the rebels. He felt his talents were more suited there. It was an emotional parting with lots of hugging and crying on the siblings part. But Matt promised that he would continue to look for their father while taking down the tyrannical Galra empire. Pidge was sad to see Matt go, but she was happy that Matt was safe and fighting against them.

Lance had started to clean up some of the equipment in the medbay. He figured that no one would really bother him that much if he was there. Especially Shiro. He really hated that clone. He couldn’t outright kill the clone though because Shiro’s consciousness was meant to get transferred into the clone body eventually. It was frustrating.

The doors to the medbay wooshed open. He glanced over to see Coran walking in. “Ah Lance, I was hoping to get a moment to talk to you.”

“Sure. What’s up Coran?”

“I’ve just been thinking…” He began. “About what you said about not trusting Shiro.”

“Ah, that…” Lance sighed a little and put down his cleaning cloth.

Coran nodded. “Yes. You and Shiro have become increasingly hostile towards each other too so it is causing me some worry. Genetically, Shiro is fine. I have looked over his bio scans whenever he has entered a healing pod and he is exactly the same now as he was back then but… I am worried about what the Galra have done to him… Is he some kind of double agent?”

“Coran…”

“Maybe you should consider telling everyone the truth?” He suggested. “I know it is kind of a bad move with time travel and all that, but if this thing with Shiro is this terrible then maybe you should consider it…”

“No.” Said Lance sternly. “Coran, I’ve already changed so many little things it’s probably going to end up being a huge problem if I let everyone know what I know… Everyone will ask questions and try to use when I know to win against Zarkon. If we do then things could get really complicated…”

Coran sighed. He didn’t look happy with Lance’s decision at all. “Lance…”

“I know what I am doing, Coran… Just… For my sanity and for the sake of Voltron, try and keep Shiro and I away from each other.” He muttered. I don’t want to be around him any more than I have to.”

“Well, if you say so…”

“I know so.” Said Lance. “Just… Please trust me Coran. I know what I need to do. Please… Just keep this secret for a bit longer. Everything I am doing I am doing for Allura and Voltron.”

“I know…” Muttered Coran. “But still I… I worry.”

“I know. So do I. But things will be okay in the end. I know it. Trust me.”

***

“The information we can gather on the Yomark base will give us information on this entire system.” Said Allura. “Every occupied planet and every planet that are due to be used for mining or other nefarious things for the Galra empire.”

This was a simple mission that Lance hardly remembered. It was so far out from everything that the Galra only had a few robots and some disgraced commander. Nothing that troublesome. If he remembered correctly he, Shiro, and Pidge would go down and gather that information and head back. Easy. It just meant more time with Shiro. Which was annoying.

“Shiro, you, Pidge and Lance will go down there and retrieve that information.” Informed Allura. 

The trio agreed and went down in Green. Breaking in was easy enough and the trio made it easily to the control room where Pidge quickly got to work downloading the information. While this happened both Shiro and Lance quickly performed a sweep of the small base. Shiro stayed close to Pidge to protect her, while Lance went out a bit further.

The disgraced commander was no real threat. Just some short, overweight thing that Lance could easily punt into the nearest dumpster. He didn’t even bother to take his bayard out. The commander completely gave themselves up when they first walked into them. It was kind of funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.

Lance walked around a corner, hearing a toilet flush. He then saw the commander waddle out of the bathroom, happily humming to themselves. When he saw Lance he squeaked in shock and pointed at him.

“W-what?! Voltron?! What are you doing here?!”

“Relax.” Said Lance calmly. “Just give up and everything will go smoothly.”

The commander seemed to contemplate this for a moment before they did something completely unexpected. “Ha, I don’t think so! You Voltron aren’t the only one with cool weapons!” They held their wrist up to their face and made a call. “Kugutsu! Protect me!”

Lance’s blood ran cold. The Galra were using the Kugutsu already? He reached for his bayard when he felt a sudden rush of wind behind him accompanied by a flash of purple. Standing in front of Lance was a Kugutsu. The armour was similar to that of one of Lotor’s generals bit was accented with red and had the all too familiar Galra symbol displayed proudly across his chest. The face was completely covered with a black looking material, making it impossible to see his face. With the physique of the Kugutsu, Lance could only assume it was one of the Shiro clones inside.

Lance reached for his bayard, but before he could grab it, there was a loud crack as the Kugutsu slammed an open palm into Lance’s chest, sending him flying down the hallway and crashing into the wall. This thing was extremely fast, and Lance was pretty sure he cracked a rib with that strike.

“Oh fuck…” He hissed. “Fuck… I didn’t expect this…”

The commander just laughed and cheered. “That’s right! Go and get him! Kill him!”

That command seemed to trigger the Kugutsu. With a twist of his wrist an energy blade sprouted out from it and they launched at Lance. Lance yelped and quickly dove out of the way just in time for them to slice into the ground where Lance had landed. The Kugutsu was hot on Lance’s heels. They were swinging like a mad man, doing their best to stab Lance.

Lance was a mix of shocked, angry, and scared. It was so different from what he was used to in his timeline. He had to have fucked up somewhere. He had to. Maybe he shouldn’t have mouthed off to Shiro? Haggar was probably listening. Yeah, he really needed to stop mouthing off when he was angry.

He probably yelled a few obscenities that he was pretty sure the others heard from over the comms system in his helmet. He was pretty sure he heard Shiro saying he was coming over to help. Not that Lance really cared at the moment. Too busy not being stabbed. There was a small whirring noise and a small spark of light in the arm before they would try and strike at him. The rockets that were added for a little extra power in its strike no doubt.

Eventually the Kugutsu backed Lance up against a wall. Lance had to quickly think about the design flaws in the armor to quickly get rid of this thing. Lance looked up at the blank face of the Kugutsu and decided to just go for it as it raised its arm. He quickly pushed forward, holding the bayard with both hands and pressed it against the soft material around the Kugutsu’s midsection. The bayard quickly formed into a broadsword and completely cut through their body at an angle. From this angle the sword had to have cleanly sliced through the guts, lungs, and spine.

The Kugutsu made a gurgling noise as the energy sword dissipated from his arm. They started to slump over as Lance stood up. Once he pulled the sword out the Kugutsu quickly bled out. Lance was panting heavily as adrenaline quickly rushed through his body. He looked up just in time to see the commander running down the hallway towards the escape pods.

Lance quickly stood up and went to run after them, but stopped when he felt something stabbing him in the chest. He looked down, but there was no puncture or cut. He wasn’t bleeding at all. But he was starting to taste blood.

He leaned against a wall as he heard Shiro running towards him. “Lance! What happened?!” He looked between Lance and the dead Kugutsu. He probably thought that they were some Galra. Not a bad assumption. “Are you okay?”

“It punched me in the chest…” Wheezed Lance. “I… I think it broke my ribs… One of the bones punctured my lung… I think…”

“... Shit.” Shiro quickly relayed information to Pidge and they quickly got back to Green. 

Lance was immediately thrown into a healing pod once they got back. Thankfully he was done after a few hours, and when he got out he was shocked at the information Pidge was talking to him about.

“So that thing that beat you up is called a Kugutsu.” Explained Pidge. “It’s like a really awesome power armor, but it’s in alpha at the moment, so it’s still pretty shit. You’re lucky you only got a punch to the chest and not a punch through the chest.”

Lance nodded a little as his mind tried to comprehend what was happening now. He had messed up the timeline way too much. He meddled too much, said the wrong thing, and made Haggar put this all into motion. He had really fucked up.


	19. Naxzela

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of season 4... Next time, onto season 5! Kudos and comment when you can :D

Pidge, the absolute spitfire of a paladin, had easily found all the information she could on the Kugutsu from the moon base. It was not good. The design had been changed slightly from the one Ulaz had provided Lance which meant they were improving the design. If that wasn’t proof enough, it was scheduled for regular updates.

“Man that armor looks really cool.” Said Hunk. “Do you think we could try and salvage one of those?”

Pidge shook her head and brought up some images on the holographic projector. “While it would be cool, the armor doesn’t seem to work without a pilot. According to the design the Kugutsu is powered by a mix of quintessence and electromagnetic pulses from the brain. Though at this stage it looks like it’s most optimized when the pilot is deep in REM sleep.”

“Layman’s terms Pidge.” Said Shiro.

“Right.” Muttered Pidge as she adjusted her glasses. “Essentially the Kugutsu is a huge robot that uses the pilot as a battery. Through spikes driven into the brain here, here, and here, it seems like these points feed visual stimulus into the pilot so they can make split second decisions and complicated movement while in REM sleep. Robots are really advanced out here, but they don’t have fluid motion like humans and most lack the ability to perform complicated and creative solutions to tasks.”

“This could also be very effective psychological warfare.” Said Coran. “Imagine popping the helmet off one of those to find you’re fighting your brother or sister.”

“Indeed…” Muttered Allura. “Pidge, do you know just who they are putting in those things?”

Pidge nodded. “Yeah, from what I gathered they are experimenting at the moment to find the best fit for the Kugutsu. They are using prisoners. Mostly the best ones from the gladiatorial arenas…”

The group went silent for a moment as some glanced over at Shiro. He looked extremely disturbed by this. Honestly, Lance was too. He really, really fucked up. People are going to die because of him. Was there no way he could fix this? Because of this mistake the war could completely change. Allura could die again.

“Unfortunately, as the Kugutsu are now, once someone is hooked into it, they are practically lobotomized.” Said Pidge. “They would still be able to eat, breathe, and do basic human functions, but they would be unresponsive for the most part. But that’s just humans. I have no idea what the brain spike placement would do to another species.”

“Hopefully we won’t run into too many more of them…” Muttered Allura. “Are there any weak points so we can take them down quickly?”

Pidge nodded and several markers appeared on the hologram. “The middle section is made from a lightweight material. Semi resistant to gunfire, but sharp force trauma in close combat is good. There are also a few fragile points along the spine. Hitting the points along the spine should at least slow it down enough to get a shot at its stomach.”

While the Paladins were worried about this new threat, there was another pressing matter. They needed to bolster public support for Voltron and the rebel cause. Which meant Coran was going to get some crazy brain worm soon and almost get them killed by some giant monster. Which was always fun.

Lance was fine with it. He did the old razzle dazzle and put on a good show. He wondered if the Blade got good space TV reception and if Keith ever actually watched any of their Voltron shows. If he did he never mentioned it. Though he was pretty sure Pidge had shown Keith the clip of himself doing a ribbon dance out of the Red lion’s mouth.

***

After their final show where they did have to form Voltron and Coran got his brain worm removed, Lance decided to once again try and woo Allura. At least let her know of his true feelings towards her. There was never going to be a perfect moment to set the mood. 

He knocked on her door and Allura answered. She was already in her nightgown and looked about ready to head to bed. “Oh Lance. Do you need something?”

“Can we talk for a tick? It won’t take long.”

She frowned a little, but nevertheless, let him in. “As long as it is quick. I was just about to go to sleep.”

“Of course.” Lance walked in but stayed near the door. Allura herself sat on the bed and smiled at him. The space mice watched him curiously from their own bed on her desk. “Well… I guess there’s no real easy way to say this but… Allura, you know how I’ve been trying to do things with you?”

“... Like what?” She asked. She genuinely didn’t seem like she knew what he meant. 

“All those things you turned into team bonding activities? I was trying to set the mood to ask you on a date.” He admitted. Allura looked completely shocked. “Yeah… I like you Allura. More than like. I’m genuinely in love with you. I have been for a long time.”

“Oh… Um… I’m really flattered Lance.” Began Allura with the most awkward look on her face. “I am honoured that you feel that way towards me but I… um… I don’t… I mean, I didn’t even realize that you had feelings towards me that were anything but plutonic.”

Lance had thought that hearing Allura reject him like that would have hurt more, but much to his surprise it didn’t. Sure, it still did, but not as badly as he thought it would. Maybe because this was still too early in the timeline for Allura to develop feelings for him?

“It’s okay Allura.” Said Lance quietly. “I knew there was a chance that you wouldn’t feel anything towards me. I just wanted to let you know.”

“I um… I’m not saying… Just give me some time to think this over.” She said quietly. “I just didn’t think I would have to hear about this before bed…”

“There was no good time to come out and say it.” Said Lance. “I love you Allura. I love you more than anything in the universe… You don’t have to answer me now, but I’ll wait for you. I promise I will.”

“Okay Lance.” Said Allura quietly. “I’ll think about it… Thank you for telling me.”

Lance smiled a little at her and left her room. When he got back to his room, Lance didn’t even bother laying down on his own bed. He decided the floor was a better option. He told Allura that he loved her. He felt a weight lifted off his shoulders.

He could imagine how it might play out now… Allura would think about it, maybe a day or a week will pass and Allura will realize that Lance was the one for her. They could start dating much earlier than Earth, and Lotor wouldn’t be able to manipulate her with his charms. Which was always a bonus.

Speaking of Lotor, he was going to show up soon. He was so going to piss in whatever fancy Galra hair product he uses and hoped it turned his hair green. Lotor was a disgusting monster. A million times worse than Zarkon. He was so going to slap that smug look off his face.

He groaned slightly and closed his eyes. They were going to capture Lotor soon. He still needed to kill Haggar first if he could. Lotor still needed to kill Zarkon, and if he didn’t kill Haggar first then she might go crazy if he kills Lotor. Time travel was hard.

***

Keith let out a yelp as he got thrown across the training room and slid across the floor. Training with the Blade was difficult. Training was almost always a life or death situation with them. He needed to get stronger so he could keep his promise to Lance and give him the future with Allura that he deserved.

He really missed Lance a lot. His smile, his laugh, the way he seemed to just look at him and know him… Keith wanted to talk to him again. Hell, he just wanted to see him again but he couldn’t. Not now. The Blade were very secretive and had dozens of protocols they needed to go through before being able to call anyone.

He was suddenly pulled up to his feet by Antok. “Okay, get up. Training is over for today.”

Keith grunted a little and walked out of the training room. His whole body felt sore and he just wanted to sleep for a bit before getting called for whatever meal he was up to that day. As he walked through the halls he happened to pass by Regris who was watching something on his communicator. 

He still had cotton in his mouth, but smiled and waved Keith over to show him what he was watching. It was a really weird video of the Voltron team with... cardboard lions? It looked ridiculous and he would have just brushed it off if it wasn’t for the fact that it really was them.

“Um… Regris? What is this?” He asked.

Regris moved his mouth a little to move the cotton before he spoke. “The Voltron show. It seems as though Voltron is trying to garner support for the rebels through these shows.” He pressed a button and grinned. “There, I sent it to you. It’s a compilation of the best moments from the Voltron show. It is very entertaining.”

Keith nodded and continued to his room to look at the Voltron show that Regris sent him. It was both entertaining and painful. It was full of terrible cringe moments. Shiro’s acting was so stilted and the way everyone talked was so awkward. It made him laugh. Then there was the Lance part of the compilation. 

Keith was embarrassed to say that he might have rewound the video a few times to see Lance ribbon dance out of Red’s mouth. Also, Coran calling Lance “Loverboy” and hearing the wild squeals and cheers of the younger female population of whatever planet they were on. It seemed like Lance had gotten very popular with women of all species.

It kind of hurt. Lance was really popular and probably had so many groupies. Tones of girls throwing themselves at him… Even if he didn’t end up with Allura, Lance would have his pic of anyone else in the universe. Anyone that wasn’t him. It made Keith’s heart hurt thinking about it. 

But that was okay. Repressing his feelings wasn’t something that was forigen to him. When Keith was earth and started to realise that he was gay he quickly realized that while people would say it’s okay, it deffinetally wasn’t okay to be labled as gay by your peers in middle school. 

So sure, he’d have passing feelings and thoughts of how cute a guy in his class might look, but there was no way he would act on it. It was an unwritten rule that everyone on earth was straight unless stated otherwise. He thought in space it might be a bit different. Hell, he thought they might find a species out there that was completely nonbinary that didn’t care about gender norms but they hadn’t. They might exist, but he hadn’t found them yet.

And as far as he knew Lance was straight. He was all about Allura anyway. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was fine if Lance liked Allura. Lance was allowed to be straight and like whoever he wanted.

There were thousands of life forms out there anyway. Keith knew that he was bound to find someone else. Maybe he could fall in love with a Galra? Someone that was part of the Blade? Then again, the Blade was very strict and hard core about everything they probably didn’t care too much about romance. At least not in the way he was used to. He sighed loudly as he stared up at the ceiling. 

He genuinely loved Lance. He loved him enough to let him go and be happy with whoever he wanted. Even if that person wasn’t him. That was part of the reason he left Voltron in the first place. Along with Shiro coming back and the whole lion swap thing happening, Keith needed to distance himself from Lance. 

Suddenly his communicator started to beep and Keith quickly sat up. “Yes?”

It was Kolivan. _“Keith. Get to the hanger immediately.”_ He said. _“We are traveling to Naxzela. A fight between the rebels and Voltron is underway. Coran has requested us as backup against the Galra. There will be a briefing when we are on our way there.”_

“Got it. I’ll be down there in a few ticks.” Keith quickly jumped off his bed and ran down to the hanger. If they were going to back Voltron up then this mission was going to be tough. The last time the Blade had actively helped Voltron was when Shiro first vanished. That thought sent chills down his spine. But that wasn’t going to happen again. Not today.

When the Blade got to the battle it was utter chaos. They arrived just in time to see a massive shield surround Naxzela, trapping Voltron there on the surface. Keith quickly figured out it was all a trap for Voltron. He managed to commander a Galra fighter and gathered the rest of the rebel ships to attack the Galra fleet.

Suddenly Voltron was able to break free and he heard Shiro’s voice on the radio, it was a relief, but it was also the worst possible news he could hear. _“Naxzela is a bomb! The battle cruiser is controlling the destination! We have to get out of here!”_

Keith quickly found the battle cruiser. He gritted his teeth and quickly made his way towards it. He could end the fight just by blowing it up. He and the rebels attacked the particle barrier around the ship but quickly realized that they couldn’t break through it.

_“It’s impossible! We can’t break through with our weapons!”_

It was then that it dawned on Keith. Weapons might not break through. But a ship could. “Maybe not with our weapons…” 

_“Keith? What are you doing?”_ Yelled Matt. _“Keith no!”_

Keith easily lined up his ship and flew at top speed at the particle barrier. He closed his eyes as his life flashed before his eyes. He didn’t want to do this, but he didn’t know what else to do. Maybe with his sacrifice he could keep his promise to Lance and build the future he deserved from this? He hoped so. If he was going to die for anyone in this war, he was going to die for him and whatever future he was trying to achieve.

Before he could hit the barrier, there was a flash of light as a laser beam shot through space and completely annihilated the battle cruiser. Keith quickly pulled out of the way just in time for the battle cruiser to explode.

Suddenly a voice crackled over the radio. _“I know we have had our differences, but I think it is time we sat down and had a little talk.”_

***

Lotor. Of course it was damn Lotor. Always swooped in and pretended to save the day. Everyone might be tricked by him, but Lance was not going to allow that to happen. He knew what kind of monster Lotor was. Lance was not going to allow that thing to weasel its way into Allura’s heart. Not after knowing what kind of monster he truly was.


	20. Paranoia suspicion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here is a new chapter. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

After the fight on Naxzela everyone reconvened on the castle of Lions. Rebels, Blade of Marmora, and team Voltron all together. It was the first time in a long time Lance had seen Keith. He had grown up a fair bit in the months he had been away from the team. Everyone was happy to catch up with him.

Keith mostly seemed interested in talking to Shiro, which was fine. Keith and Shiro were closer to each other, even if this Shiro was a damn clone. They looked happy enough catching up. Eventually Keith went over to him.

“Hey Lance.”

“Hey Keith. What’s up?” 

“Nothing much… Glad you guys were able to get out of there.”

Lance laughed. “Yeah, I’m glad about that too. So, you went and helped with the fight too? What did you get up to? Shoot down some ships? Sneak onto a larger one and stab some robots?”

“Yeah, something like that.” Said Keith. He smiled at Lance and let out a relieved sigh. “I’m just glad you were able to get out of that one alive.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Keith nodded and looked around a little. “So um… How are things going with Allura?”

“I told her that I love her.” Admitted Lance. He looked over at Allura who was currently talking to some rebels who had Lotor in handcuffs. They were going to lead him to his cell. “The ball is in her court now… Even if she doesn’t fall in love with me now I know she will eventually.”

“Right…” Muttered Keith. “Well um, anyway…”

Kolivan walked over to them and put his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “It is time for us to go now Keith.” He nodded at Lance. “Red Paladin.”

“Kolivan. Nice to see you again.” Said Lance. “Good to know you’re taking care of Keith too. How are things going with the Blade?”

“Quite well.” He gently started to steer Keith towards their ship. “We must go now.”

“Bye Lance.” Said Keith quickly. “It was good to see you again…”

“You too buddy.” Said Lance. “See you next time.” He waved as Keith looked back at him for a little longer. Kolivan caught his attention and he finally looked away. Lance looked back over to where Lotor was getting led away. He still had his head held high as he walked with Allura and Shiro.

He followed along after them and watched as Lotor was taken to a cell and placed inside. The alien seemed so cold yet sure of himself. Lance didn’t like it. This guy was a fucking narcissist. He spouted bullshit about equality and overthrowing Zarkon, but Lance knew his game.

The others eventually left and Lance was alone with Lotor. The purple menace didn’t seem to notice that he was in the same room as him. After a while though, Lotor seemed to be bothered by him.

“What do you want, Red Paladin?” He asked.

“Nothing. Just wondering how you think you can get away with all your bullshit.” He said calmly.

It seemed to take Lotor a moment to figure out what bullshit meant. “Ah, I see… Well I don’t know where this level of anger has come from, but I can assure you that I do not want what Zarkon has envisioned for the universe.”

“Yeah, right. Sure.” Lance sighed and crossed his arms. “You know, you were messing around with a lot of quintessence stuff. Like, the comet you snatched up has properties like, moving through the quintessence fields to harvest energy.”

“Hmm, never heard about that.” Said Lotor calmly.

“Yeah… But you know I guess that would be better to do that rather than say, harvesting a bunch of people for their energy and using them as something like batteries.”

Lotor froze for a moment. “Oh? Batteries?”

“Yeah.” Said Lance. “It was kind of the original plot for a movie on earth. The Matrix. Robots use humans as batteries or something like that… or maybe they were using them for memory space? I can’t remember the original script.”

“Huh, interesting…”

“Yeah… If you betray us, or even think about harming Allura in any way, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

“Oh, I am shaking in my boots.”

“Mock me all you want, but I am serious.” Said Lance coldly. “I don’t care what you think you’re doing but if you do anything to hurt Allura I will have your head on a stick before you can fake an apology to her.”

“Nice to know that Allura has an attack dog.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Allura doesn’t need an attack dog.”

“Yet there you are attacking people for her, and a prisoner no less.” Said Lotor in a snobbish way. “Now if you excuse me, I am sure that you have much more important things to do than talk to me.”

“For once you’re actually right.” Lance left Lotor alone to think about what he had said. Hopefully this time he would think twice about trying to manipulate Allura, but he doubted that. Lotor was a piece of shit and he wanted nothing more than to stab the bastard.

***

Soon after Lotor’s capture Pidge and Matt figured that they might have found out where their dad was. Which was fine. Lance knew they would end up saving some prisoners but wouldn’t find Sam. He would have been taken far away by Zarkon as a bargaining chip to get Lotor back.

The mission went smoothly enough. The prisoners were saved, everyone was happy. It was all good and things were going fine, right along the timeline as it should have been. Then he heard Pidge on the radio.

_“We found him! We found my dad!”_

When he heard that, Lance froze in a mix of shock and quiet horror. They had rescued Sam without having to kill Zarkon. What did this mean? Did they not care about getting Lotor back? Something else had happened. It had to have. There had to be a reason they no longer needed to do a prisoner exchange. Did Zarkon not care about Lotor? Did this have something to do with the Kugutsu? It had to. What else had Lance fucked up this time? 

But he couldn’t freak out about that. Not when Matt and Pidge were so happy to finally have their dad back. Lance was happy for him to be back too. This meant they would be going back to earth soon to warn everyone about the Galra.

Now Lance was at a loss of what to do. That bitch Sandra caused so many unneeded deaths and misery on earth. She was the reason Adam was dead. She was the reason Sendak was so easily able to invade. She was also one of the people that caused Allura to… He’d risk it. He’d risk it all for her. Not like he hadn’t already done that.

He was just happy for Pidge and Matt. They finally had their dad back and were ready to take on Zarkon. Pidge would probably try to take him on single handedly. That was just the kind of person they were.

Everyone was happy and cheerful, but Lance was standing to the side and quietly brooding. He was happy for everyone but this was so alarming. He ended up sitting in the kitchen and trying to figure out how to make something that tasted like chocolate. Some powdered green stuff, some orange stuff, flakes of purple things, and blue looking crystals mixed with a purple juice. It tasted like choc mint.

“You okay there Lance?” Asked Hunk as he walked in to start dinner.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” He said. “Just… I’m surprised we were able to find Sam so easily.”

Hunk chuckled. “Yeah. For once good things are happening for us. It would have sucked if we didn’t find them. I mean, Pidge has been looking for them since before we left earth.”

“True… I guess we did just get lucky.”

“Yeah. So what kind of food goo do you want? Slightly spicy goo or salty goo?”

“Chef’s choice.” Said Lance with a slight smile.

Hunk nodded and started to press some buttons on the food goo dispenser. “You know… You’ve been a little… Is there something going on buddy? You were okay for a while but…”

“My personality has changed?” Questioned Lance. “Yeah, I guess I’m just getting paranoid. Zarkon is sneaky, so is Lotor. He is his son after all. He might say he is against Zarkon, but I say since Zarkon has a bounty on him we should just give Zarkon his head and be done with it.”

“You want to kill him?” Asked Hunk in shock.

“Why not? We’re at war here Hunk. Do you think Zarkon will give up the Galra empire if we very politely ask him to?” Asked Lance. “This is war. Voltron is the defender of the universe, but we have to kill people.”

Hunk looked increasingly uncomfortable. “Lance…”

“Hunk, we have killed people. We kill hundreds of Galra every time we take down a cruiser. This isn’t on earth where they might survive, we’re in space. Galra still need to breathe air. With all the fights we’ve been in we’ve probably murdered a small country’s worth of Galra. We’ve had to have at least wiped out the state of Florida a few times.”

“Most of them have been robots.” Reminded Hunk. 

“We’ve still killed people and until this war is over we’re going to have to keep killing. We’re Paladins of Voltron. We’re the defenders of the universe… And at some point we have to face the reality that to defend some people we have to kill some. That’s the nature of war.”

“Lance…”

Lance poured his drink down the sink and tossed the cup into the dishwasher. “Call me when dinner is ready… I’ve got some training to do.”

***

Dinner felt awkward to Hunk. Everyone was all smiles as they headed back to the Olkari homeworld. It had kind of become their base during all of this. Everyone thought that Sam’s intellect was best served there. Plus he and Slav could probably figure out all kinds of cool stuff. Maybe.

Anyway, the point was, Hunk felt something was off with Lance ever since they did save Sam. Maybe Lance was telling the truth when he said he was just paranoid just by being in this war? Maybe. Hunk didn’t like this at all.

He ended up talking to Pidge when he was able to get her attention away from her dad. She seemed a little reluctant, but was happy to talk with Hunk.

“Hey man, what’s up?” She asked.

Hunk took a deep breath and sighed. “Look, I don’t want to be a huge downer when you are having such a good time with your family but… Lance is still acting weird. I don’t think he’s doing very well mentally.”

“Yeah?”

“I think the war is really getting to him.” Said Hunk. “He’s kind of acting paranoid. Maybe it’s gotten worse because we have Lotor here…”

“Maybe…” Pidge frowned as she thought things over. “I guess… I haven’t really noticed because my dad is back so… I’ll keep an eye out. Do you think Altean’s know anything about mental health?”

“We could ask Ryner when we get back?”

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea.” Said Pidge. “You think Lance is leaning more towards self harm or harming others kind of paranoid?”

Hunk shrugged. “No clue, but if I had to choose he has been talking about having to kill for the greater good…”

“Yeah, let’s keep sharp objects away from him for the time being… And maybe keep a closer eye on Lotor? If Lance’s paranoia is getting set off because of Lotor then he might actually try and kill him. All depends on how far gone he is.”

“I know…” Hunk sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I really hope he is okay… I don’t think he will hurt anyone, but where we are now in the war we all need to be at least functioning…”

“Yeah…” Pidge crossed her arms. “You know, by the end of this we’re all going to need therapy. I mean, Shiro still has clear PTSD, I have no idea what’s happening with my dad and Matt, we’re technically child soldiers, and I have no idea what is happening with Keith at the moment. Probably some fucked up shit.”

Hunk shivered at the thought. “Yeah… I didn’t really think about that… A-anyway, what are you guys doing?”

“I’m getting my dad and Matt to look over some of the information I have on the Kugutsu. Matt said some of the rebels had fought against like, one or two, but they aren’t very wide spread.”

“Well that’s a relief for now.”

“Yeah. Want to have a look with us?” She asked. “We could use your input.”

“Sure.” Hunk didn’t really want to think about Lance becoming paranoid and hurting people. He needed to clear his head for a bit and then get back to helping Lance. He seemed functional enough for the moment.

***

Hagar watched the latest recording of the Kugutsu fighting in the arena. The Kugutsu were going well and with every defeat she was able to upgrade and improve the next generation. They had already upgraded the armor in the joints and around the midsection. The jets in the calf armor had been improved so it wouldn’t jam or explode anymore. 

The spine was still a difficult spot. It was resilient but it was still fragile. They had worked it down to a small section along the neck being the biggest weak spot. She didn’t like this, but she was fine with that. She would continue to improve her design.

The biggest improvement she had made was keeping the pilot of Kugutsu conscious and semi alive, if it could even be called that. Being awake made the Kugutsu more alert and they had a faster reaction time. This was a very, very good thing. She was very happy about this and was more than happy to continue to tweak things here and there. 

She was looking at the data comparing a pilot that was completely lobotomised, one that had some self awareness, and one that only had parts of their personality repressed. She was seeing good progress with the last one, but she would need more data before she decided to roll out that upgrade to every other Kugutsu.

The doors to her room opened and her ever loyal druid Macidus walked in. Despite wearing that mask on his face, she knew that he was grinning and excited about something. Though he knew well enough not to speak before being spoken to.

“What do you want?” She asked.

“You told me to inform you of when he is able to move independently again?” He asked. “Well, he is back and very interested in your plan to get revenge.”

Haggar couldn’t help but chuckle. “Of course he is… The mad bastard is always excited for revenge and a chance to reclaim his honor after the absolute shit show that happened before.” She followed behind Macidus with a smirk on her face. This was going to be fun.


	21. Consequences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Lance's bad choices finally catch up with him! Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Things with Lotor were kind of strained. With him not being used as a bargaining chip to get Sam back, they had no idea what to do with him. Lance kind of wanted to poke him repeatedly with a sharp stick in the eye. That would be fun.

As it stood now Lotor was still in his cell and Lance would come by more often than not when Allura went to talk with him. Allura said it wasn’t necessary, but Lance still wanted to be there just incase. He wanted to make sure that Lotor wasn’t going to try anything manipulative. He stayed quiet for most of the time and mostly spoke to the purple fucker when he delivered food to him or went to collect his tray.

Lotor just blatantly ignored him most of the time. Though there were a few times he did complain about the quality of the food. Lance didn’t care that much though. Lotor could do fuck all at the moment anyway.

Today it was just more food goo. Lotor once again made a dismissive sound. “This food again? Don’t you have something better to eat?”

“We do. It’s reserved for those of us that are trying to better the universe and not a backstabbing purple bastard.”

Lotor rolled his eyes. “You know nothing about me yet you judge me.”

“I know a lot about you.” Said Lance coldly. “I might not look like it and from the Voltron show you might think I’m some flirtatious idiot, but I know way more than you think.”

Lotor seemed amused by this. “Oh? Enlighten me.”

Lance knew this probably wasn’t a good idea, but fuck Lotor. He was a piece of shit. “Your mother was Honerva, who is currently going by the name Haggar. You were always interested in culture and took a more diplomatic approach to taking over planets rather than destroying them and taking them over that way. I have no doubt when Altea was destroyed there were still hundreds of them out in the universe. They have basic shapeshifting abilities and with your knowledge on culture, I have no doubt you were able to find and convince many of them to join some colony far away from Zarkon’s reach.”

“... You have a very wild imagination.” Muttered Lotor. He looked a little shaken, but not enough to completely change his demeanor. “Where do you get your information from?”

“I have my sources… Also would be pretty fucked up if it turned out you were using those Altean’s to harvest their quintessence for generations. That would be real fucked up. Something I’m pretty sure Allura would fucking murder anyone on the spot for doing. Like, what kind of sick and twisted individual would do that? Someone worse than Zarkon. At least Zarkon ended their lives. He didn’t drain them until they died.”

“... Like I said, you have a wild imagination.” Muttered Lotor. Now he was shaken up. Good. He should be.

“Eat your fucking food and be thankful I didn’t piss in it.” Growled Lance as he left. He hoped Lotor was scared now. He should be. Lance was filled with a burning hatred towards the entire Galra royal family. If he could survive the time, Lance might have gone back in time and strangled Zarkon and Honerva in their cribs.

Lance paused and shook his head. He shouldn’t be thinking that kind of stuff. That was a little too dark for him. Killing infants was dark. Really dark. Maybe he was truly slipping into the hazy fate of the anti-hero that he himself was slowly becoming. Should he just embrace that darker side of his supposed fate? 

It seems like that fate might become unavoidable. Was that fate even worth it? He had already changed so many things without even thinking about it. None of the real changes that happened were things that he wanted to happen. Introducing the Kugutsu was not something he wanted to do. It made him feel sick to think that he made things harder. But if there was a silver lining, maybe he could say Haggar was making use of the clones.

He decided to walk back to his room to think a bit more and clear his head. On the way he saw Allura. Seeing her did make him feel better. “Hey Allura.”

She looked over at him and smiled. “Hello Lance. Did you bring Lotor his food?”

“Yeah, he’s still complaining about it.”

“Naturally.” She said with a slight laugh. “It isn’t the most appetizing thing in the universe. But I digress. At least he is eating so that’s good.”

“Yeah I guess.” Though Lance would have preferred the purple fucker to starve. “Hey Allura have you thought more about…”

“Yes I have.” Said said quietly. “Lance, I am very sorry but I can’t reciprocate your feelings. I appreciate you as a friend and I value your friendship as I have valued the friendship of all the Paladin’s but… I don’t have romantic feelings for you. I never have and I don’t think I ever will.”

That was a verbal kick to the balls if Lance ever heard one. A complete and utter rejection from Allura. “O-oh… I um… That’s okay. I kind of expected that. I mean, I did kind of confess to you out of the blue like that…”

“I hope this doesn’t affect our relationship as Paladins?”

“Of course not.” Said Lance. “Allura, just because you don’t want to date me doesn’t mean I’d let that affect Voltron. Sure it will hurt for a while, but I’m mature enough to not let this affect Voltron.”

Allura looked very relieved to hear that. “Thank you Lance. I really do appreciate that.” She sidestepped him and continued to walk down the hallway. “Well, if you excuse me. I’m going to go and talk to Lotor for a bit… See if he has anything else to say.”

“Um, yeah, sure… You do that…” Lance watched her go. He didn’t understand why she had rejected him. He was different from last time. He wasn’t some goofy inexperienced kid. Everything he had done he had done for her. He was more mature. He was better than what he was. Allura had seen what kind of man he was. Was he not enough for her?

Lance walked back to his room and laid down on his bed. He looked up at the ceiling. He was very, very confused. Allura should have fallen for him, right? He was smart, charming, kind, a good soldier. Hell, he was probably the best soldier in the whole team. He had been loving and romantic to Allura. 

He thought back to his own original timeline. He had been much more of a flirt towards Allura and other smiles in general. He had tried to be as emotionally intimate with Allura as possible. Lance thought back to when they went on their first date.

He had thought about that night many, many times. How lovely Allura had looked, the flowers, her smile… They were meant to be together. They had to be. Why would she have gone on a date with him if she didn’t at least like him? She gave him her Altean markings too. Something that she couldn’t have done if she wasn’t in love with him, right?

No one had ever said otherwise. No one had ever said Allura wasn’t in love with him. Everyone seemed sure that if she had survived then they would have been together. They were happy together. Maybe she had to experience heartbreak at Lotor’s hands before she did fall for him...

But didn’t that make him a rebound of some sort? And if he was some kind of rebound, did that mean Allura didn’t actually love him? She just felt like she did because she was lonely. If that was the case then didn’t that mean everything he thought was a lie? Allura never loved him, but just used him because she was lonely?

He didn’t want to think about that. Everyone always said how happy they were together and would have been together. Was that a lie? Everyone was always so positive around the subject. In the months after everyone was consoling him and saying how they were perfect together.

Even Keith did, and he was stunted emotionally. He had told him that if things were different that they would be together. Keith was so certain about things and his intuition was usually correct. He really did believe the people around him when they said they deserved to be together. They should have been together, but they weren’t and they probably wouldn’t be together in this timeline either.

Which confused the hell out of Lance. From what that Tetax had told him this was meant to be his second chance with Allura. The one his soul was bound to. Did he have to fight harder for her? But the whole reason he was here was because he was going to try and save Allura’s life so they could be together.

Yet, there was now this nagging doubt that he hadn’t felt in years beginning to poke and prod at the back of his mind. A feeling that something was very wrong. He had this feeling during the first few months after Allura had died. Lance felt sick, like he was drowning and wanted to puke all at the same time. It kind of felt like the start of a panic attack for him. But at the same time it didn’t.

He was doing all this for Allura. He was going to save her. Even if she didn’t love him now it just meant he would have to keep working at it. That’s all it was, right? Just some more time together and things would be okay, right? He wasn’t just some rebound that Allura was using to make herself feel better. She knew how he felt about her in his original timeline. She knew he loved him and she had to have loved him in return. She had given him her Altean markings so she would always be with him… Those beautiful, ugly reminders that she would always haunt him… His first real love. His last love. Allura was his universe, but he wasn’t even a comet in hers.

The alarm sounded and quickly snapped Lance out of his depressive spiral. He quickly pulled himself up and went to the bridge where the other Paladin’s, along with Matt and Sam, were waiting. Allura was there and she couldn’t look at him. He felt sick to his stomach. Allura really didn’t like him at all, did she?

“What’s happening?” Asked Hunk.

“We got a distress call from this Galra battle cruiser.” Said Coran. “It looks like it might be a ghost ship.”

Matt nodded in agreement. “It’s an old design from around half a century ago. According to the rebel database these kinds of cruisers were left to drift. They had an unstable core that was prone to leaking radioactive material when the casing cracked. They were discontinued for that reason.”

“It’s because of the radiation leaks that the Galra, if they come across them, will either tow it to a recycling plant, or they would tow it to the nearest planet and let it drift into their gravitational pull. Essentially using those old cruisers as nuclear bombs.”

“So, what are we meant to do?” Asked Hunk.

Coran twirled his moustache. “Well, we are going to send Pidge and Lance inside to gather any information you can from the bridge while Allura, Shiro, and you plant rockets on designated points on the cruiser. Once planted and information is gathered, Pidge will calibrate the rockets and launch the cruiser into the nearest star. We’ll follow closely behind to make sure that the cruiser makes it to the star and blows up safely.”

“How many rockets do we need to place?” Asked Shiro.

“Seven should do it.” Said Sam. “The Black Lion can carry three while the Blue and Yellow Lion can carry two. It works out well since those are the largest lions.”

“Alright.” Said Shiro. “Everyone, let’s gear up and head out. Pidge, Lance, don’t take any unnecessary risks. If you detect high levels of radiation, get out of there.”

***

The plan went off without a hitch. Both Pidge and Lance made it to the bridge and were a little surprised by the low levels of radiation in the area they were. They had assumed they were just far away from the radiation. There were no Galra on the ship and Pidge was happily working away.

Lance decided to just walk around close to the bridge. There were no Galra or their robots on this ship. It was completely abandoned. It was pretty spooky, but kind of cool. He couldn’t remember if this was a thing he did before in the previous timeline or if it was something new.

He sighed a little and kept checking to see if he was going to get radiated at some point. It seemed as though he was fine so far. The geiger counter in his suit was reading safe levels so far. So he wandered a little deeper into the ship. He looped around and started to head back and called Pidge over the radio.

“Hey Pidge. Almost done?” He asked.

 _“Yeah, just give me a few more ticks.”_ She said. _“You guys almost done with those rockets?”_

 _“Just finishing the last one now.”_ Said Hunk. _“You guys need any help?”_

 _“I’m fine.”_ Said Allura. 

_“I could use a hand.”_ Said Shiro.

 _“Got it. I’ll be over in a few seconds Shiro.”_ Said Hunk.

“I’ll head back over to you Pidge.” Said Lance.

 _“Got it. See you soon.”_ Said Pidge.

Lance started to walk back to the bridge and sighed again. Just another day, another mission… And he was still thinking about Allura. He just didn’t get it. He was more mature than he had been in his original timeline. He just didn’t understand. Maybe he should have grown his hair out or something to make it look more like Lotor’s? He detested the thought of trying to look like the purple fucker, but maybe...

Lance was suddenly drawn out of his thoughts when he was suddenly grabbed by the throat and thrown into another room. He hit the ground with such force his bayard went sliding across the room and his helmet flew right off his head.

“FUCK!” Lance bounced and tried to pull himself up.

He heard a dark chuckle and looked up to see none other than Sendak. Apparently not blown up and dead in the vacuum of space. Though, he did look more like a cyborg. He now had a robotic right hand and the cybernetics of his left arm now seemed to extend up his neck. His face was scared to shit. He looked way too pleased with himself being able to snatch Lance up like that.

“Red paladin.” He growled out.

Lance stared at him in shock for a few ticks before he let out a sigh. He had messed up the timeline too much. Something like this was bound to happen. “I should have used a stronger explosive…”

Sendak smirked and kicked Lance as hard as he could in the chest. Lance flew backwards and hit his head hard against the closest wall. He did his best to stay conscious but he quickly succumbed to the dark and let that empty nothingness embrace his mind.


	22. Captured

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is the result of the last cliffhanger. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

The team was in a state of panic. Lance had vanished and all that was left was his helmet. They explored the ship more and quickly discovered that the ship might have looked like a derelict ship, but there was absolutely no radiation at all. It was all a facade. There were no cameras that were active inside the ship but Coran did manage to pick up a small blip on the castleship’s monitors. It was so small, but zooming it it did seem like a very small stealth flyer.

They logically determined that this was probably a trap. But they didn’t know why the Galra would want to capture Lance. It was probably just coincidence that Lance got caught. Either way, they were down a Paladin that was nor more than likely in Galra hands.

Coran was extremely worried about this whole situation. He was the only one that Lance had confided in about him technically being from the future. If the Galra found out sensitive information about future events because of Lance the future could be in jeopardy. Also, they couldn’t form Voltron without a Red Paladin. It was like the Shiro situation all over again.

“We should make contact with Keith and ask him to come back.” Said Shiro.

“Oh, so you just want to replace Lance?” Asked Pidge.

“No, but we might need Voltron in the meantime.” Said Shiro. “We might even need to use Voltron to rescue him. Keith is the only other person Red let pilot them. We don’t have time to look for someone else. You have no idea what the Galra will do to him.”

“They probably have way more precautions now because of you!” Snapped Pidge. She was getting angry very quickly. “Lance has been like a second brother to me since the Garrison and now that he’s out there I… I can’t keep losing family to them!”

Allura clapped her hands. “Pidge, we will find Lance no matter what, but Shiro is right. We need to get into contact with Keith. Even if we can’t get in contact with Keith we could at the very least, inform Kolivan and the Blade that Lance has been captured and request they find out where Lance is being held and even mount a rescue if they feel they can succeed.”

As she was talking Coran started to call Kolivan. The sooner they got this over with the better. While it would be nice to see Keith again, it would have been better under different circumstances. 

“I have Kolivan on the line.” Said Coran.

“Good. Put him through.” Said Allura.

Moments later Kolivan’s face came up on the screen. He was as stone faced as ever. _“Hello Princess Allura.”_ He said _“To what do I owe the pleasure?”_

“Hello Kolivan… There has been an incident. While investigating what appeared to be a derelict Galra cruiser, Lance was kidnapped. Presumably by the Galra, or a bounty hunter that is going to hand him over to the Galra.” 

The older Galra looked surprised. _“He got kidnapped? We shall be vigilant and help the Red paladin when and if we come across him.”_

“Yes, and speaking of Red Paladins…” Muttered Allura. “Could we possibly speak to Keith? He is the only one that was able to pilot the Red Lion and we need him to form Voltron.”

Kolivan was quiet for a moment. _“Unfortunately Keith is indisposed at the moment. He is helping extract a spy from a Galra base. Her position has been compromised. Keith was the only available Blade at the time.”_

“Do you have an idea on when he would be back?” Asked Allura. “This is vital.”

 _“I understand that Princess, but Keith is no contact until the mission is complete and he has extracted our agent.”_ He said calmly. _“Once they have extracted themselves from the situation they will contact me and I will inform them of the situation with the Red Paladin.”_

“Thank you Kolivan.”

_“How is Lotor? Have you gotten any information from him?”_

“Nothing particularly useful.”

_“I see… Perhaps you should let us take custody of him? We would have better luck extracting information from him.”_

Coran internally cringed. While he had no doubt that Kolivan could get information from the Prince, he felt that maybe if Zarkon tried to do some kind of exchange it might be best if Lotor didn’t look like he got his face caved in. That would cause way more problems than they already had.

“While I appreciate the gesture, Lotor will stay in our care.” Informed Allura.

Kolivan nodded, though he did seem a little disappointed. _“Understood. We shall contact you when either we have information of the Red Paladin’s whereabouts or when Keith is back from his mission. Whichever comes first.”_

“Thank you Kolivan.” Allura ended the call and took a deep breath. “Pidge, Hunk, Go over the castleships’s video feed and try to find out if there was anything in that feed that we can use to track that ship. Shiro, think back to when you were captured by the Galra. Try and remember if there is anything useful we can use to find Lance. No detail is too small. Sam, Matt, use whatever you can to help us find Lance.”

While the Paladin’s went to try and figure this all out, Allura sat in a seat. She put her head in her hands. “Coran, can you tell me the truth? Did I mess up? We all assumed that the Galra cruiser was abandoned and… If I had thought of a better plan then Lance wouldn’t...”

“You couldn’t have known.” Said Coran. “None of us could have.”

“... He confessed to me.” She said quietly. “Coran, Lance told me that he liked me and he wanted to go on a date with me… But I rejected him and now the Galra could be doing anything to him and…”

“It’s okay Allura.” Said Coran. “You’re allowed to turn someone down. You’re not obliged to date everyone who throws their affection at you. Please don’t feel guilty about this.”

Allura nodded in agreement, but still looked conflicted about the whole situation. Coran didn’t know what to say or do in this situation. He wasn’t even too sure why Lance said that he liked Allura. Maybe he and Allura had something in the future? That would be kind of cute. They looked good together.

“Allura, Lance is one of the strongest Paladin’s I know. I’m sure whatever situation he is in he’ll be able to hold out until we can find him and bring him back.”

“I hope so Coran…”

“I know so Princess.” Coran still didn’t know what was happening with Lance, but he really hoped that they were okay. He could only hope that this was still going along whatever timeline Lance had talked about previously.

***

Lance drifted in and out of consciousness for who knows how long. An hour? A few days? A year? He didn’t know. His head was swimming and he wanted to vomit constantly, but he couldn’t. He hadn’t eaten anything in so long. Maybe? He wasn’t sure. All his thoughts were getting muddled together.

A sudden chill washed over his body, making Lance jolt awake. He was suspended in the air by some weird anti gravity mechanism. It reminded him a little of that movie The Incredibles, where Syndrome had captured the whole family and left them to rot. It was kind of like that. Lance wondered how he was going to pee. He looked down at himself and noted that he was wearing Galra prisoner clothes, just without the weird little crop top.

The gravity of the situation he was in slowly started to sink in; the Galra had caught him. This hadn’t happened in the previous timeline. This was all new. On one hand he felt that maybe he should have just left everything as it was and let himself grieve for the rest of his life, but on the other hand he still wanted to save Allura. He really believed that she didn’t have to die. But now all bets were off.

The door suddenly opened and a few druids walked in with Haggar. “Good. You are awake.” She walked up to him, almost smearing as she did so. “Now, I think we should have a little talk, Red Paladin.”

“What about?” Asked Lance. “Secrets about Voltron? All that kind of stuff?”

“I want to know how you knew about Kuron.”

Lance decided to play dumb. “Huh? What’s a Kuron?”

“You know exactly what it is.” She growled. “Shiro. The Black Paladin. You practically layed out everything in front of Shiro.”

“Wait, so I was right? I was just spitballing there.” Said Lance. “I honestly didn’t know Shiro was a… Is he a clone or a sleeper agent? I accused him of both.”

She glared at him for a few moments before she raised her hand. She moved so her gnarled claws were ghosting over his face. Without a word Lance felt something like lightning coursing through his face. It was like he was getting tasered, in the face. But instead of electricity it was probably quintessence. Lance didn’t know if that was better or worse than getting tasered in the face.

His throat locked up and he couldn’t physically scream. Lance was pretty sure that his diaphragm had frozen in place and he was unable to breathe. Spots appeared in his vision and he almost blacked out when Haggar moved her hand away. Lance’s lungs finally filled with air and he was able to breathe again. He coughed, hacked and did his best to breathe again.

Haggar frowned at him and looked over at one of her druids. “I want a blood test done on him. Compare his results to that of the Black Paladin and the Holts.”

One of the druids quickly left the room while the other stuck Lance in the arm with a needle and drew blood. Eventually the other druid came back with a machine and they inserted Lance’s blood vial into it. On the screen a bunch of Galran words started to appear.

“His blood is similar to that of the others of his species.” Said one of the druids. “An iron based blood system made up of plasma, platelets, white blood cells, and red blood cells.” A word started to flash on the screen. “Oh… And undetermined?”

“What do you mean undetermined?” Hissed Haggar. “Is it an illness? A chemical? What?”

“I’m cross referencing right now.” They said as they hit buttons on their blood testing machine. After a few ticks some more words came up. “... This machine seems to be broken. It said there is thaumaturgy in his blood.”

Haggar looked surprised for a moment before she gave Lance a dirty look. “You two, leave us. Now.” Her druids looked at each other for a moment before they nodded and left the room.

Now they were alone and Lance felt thoroughly creeped out and worried as hell. How did he have thaumaturgy in his blood? He drank that in his future. Was this some weird time traveling stuff? It had to be. Right?

“So… You made contact with a Tetax?” Questioned Haggar. “That would explain how you knew about Kuron. Did you come back in time because Voltron lost the war? You are all scattered to the wind? Zarkon won?”

Lance decided that it was probably pointless to argue with her about the truth of the matter. She knew what thaumaturgy was and seemed to have an idea of how it worked. “You think I’d come back for the war? Nah, that was easy to win. I just went back further than intended. Zarkon? A push over. Lotor? Like crushing an insect. You? I mean, just look at you. You’re just an old woman. A hard enough push would kill you.”

“For someone to speak with such arrogance it makes me feel like you are hiding something.” She said. “It almost makes me believe that Zarkon did win the war and you’re trying to prevent the ultimate victory from happening.”

Lance shrugged. “Believe what you want crazy lady.”

“Where is the Tetax now?” She asked. “They are said to stay close to the person they gave their thaumaturgy to.”

Lance shrugged again. “No idea. I didn’t even know they were a Tetax when they read my fortune the first time. The universe is full of aliens I don’t know anything about.”

“Does anyone else know about Kuron?”

“On team Voltron? I’ve dropped a few hints about this and that, but everyone’s generally treating Shiro like he’s still Shiro.”

She nodded. “I see… Do you have anything else to say for yourself?”

“Yeah, my arms are getting tired and my back is starting to hurt. Could you let me down some time?”

Haggar rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, leaving Lance hanging there. He tried to move again, but his back continued to feel stiff and kind of painful. How much longer was he going to be hanging up here? If only they would let him down soon. Then he would figure out how to escape.

***

Haggar walked into a control room a few doors down from where Lance was being held prisoner. Macidus had recorded the conversation and logged it as Interrogation 87. Information from this one was being compiled along with all the others to see if anything useful came from them. It was all minute things at this point.

“This will be the last interrogation.” Said Haggar calmly. “No matter the situation he wakes up in or how he is threatened the answers are always practically the same. The thaumaturgy is a strange magic, more fickle and confusing that quintessence. Even if we were able to extract it from his body we wouldn’t have even a nano particle of viable material for study. Any direct question about the future and his reason for being gifted such a powerful gift is always joked about or deflected. Even the basic magic of the thaumaturgy attempts to protect and preserve the timeline in an almost passive way.”

Macidus just nodded along and continued to type away on the console, quickly logging away information and bringing up a control system for the newest Kugutsu. It was still attached to the spinal cord like the others but was much lighter and more well protected. They had been tinkering here and there over the past few months.

They had created extremely powerful Kugutsu this way. Faster, smarter, stronger. But most importantly, completely under the Galra control. Their minds were only their own for as long as their masters allowed them. Short term memory could easily be wiped while long term memory was harder. They could extract answers from anyone and they would willingly give it up without much of a second thought.

“Should I turn them off for now?” Asked Macidus.

Haggar nodded. “Yes. He still needs to undergo a few more procedures before he is ready for the final fitting.”

Macidus nodded and pressed a button on the console. They watched as Lance violently twitched on the screen before he went completely limp. On a camera pointing right at Lance’s back it showed their new Kagutsu was working well so far. As soon as he was brought in it was integrated into his system. They had extremely positive results considering all the experimentation they had with the Shiro clones. He didn’t even realise that he was already integrated into the system.


	23. Dam

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunk and Pidge set out to fix a dam on an alien planet. Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

It had been weeks since they had heard anything about Lance. They had no word from Keith either. So they were down a paladin. Tensions seemed to be running higher than when they were looking for Shiro. Lance wasn’t like Shiro, he hadn’t been captured by the Galra before. He was a kid. Just a kid.

Hunk and Pidge were really scared for him. They didn’t know what the Galra were doing to him. They just knew it was probably something horrible. Lance wasn’t going to be able to handle this. They couldn’t handle this. Pidge threw down her spanner and watched as it bounced across the ground, hitting the Green Lion’s paw.

“FUCK!” She yelled. “JUST FUCK!”

Hunk, who was sitting by her just sighed. “Pidge, swearing like that isn’t going to do anything.”

“I know but fuck it! I need to do something! She snapped in frustration. “Every time we are all together someone else gets ripped from us! It’s like the universe won’t cut us some slack…”

“It’s okay Pidge.” Said Hunk calmly. “We just have to keep looking for him.”

“It’s not okay!” Snapped Pidge as she threw her hands in the air. “You weren’t in the ship! I was! I should have heard something or seen something and… I did nothing…” She took off her glasses and rubbed at her eyes. “If I’d just told Lance to stay with me instead of letting him walk off…” Pidge had been beating herself up more and more over Lance. Especially since her dad went to stay on Olkari for the time being while Matt continued to fight with the rebels.

“Oh Pidge…” Hunk hugged her tightly. “It’s not your fault. No one blames you. You have nothing to feel guilty about. The Galra don’t play fair. We just have to accept this fact.”

“B-but I… We didn’t… I could have…”

“It’s okay.” Said Hunk quietly as he patted her head. “We don’t know what happened to him, but we will find him… Maybe if he wasn’t taken you would be? Lance would be beating himself up if you were taken. You dad and Matt would lose their minds.”

“I-I guess so…” She muttered. “I… I just feel like maybe I’m bad luck or something? Like, Matt, my dad, and Shiro vanished. Then Shiro vanished again… Now Lance… There was also that time Allura was captured by them too.”

Hunk hugged her tighter. “Pidge, it’s okay. You aren’t cursed or jinxed. It’s okay. We will find him. We’re going to bring him home… Hell, we’re going to go and bring him back to Earth. I promise…”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Lance wouldn’t turn his back on any of us, so we’re not going to turn our back on him.”

 _“All Paladin’s to the bridge!”_ Came Coran’s voice over the speakers. The Yellow and Green Paladin quickly made their way to the bridge where Allura and Coran were already waiting. It took a few more minutes before Shiro showed up.

“What’s happening?” Asked Hunk. “Has Keith made contact?”

“Do we have an idea where Lance is?” Asked Pidge.

“Unfortunately that’s a no on both fronts.” Said Coran calmly. “We have had a request for assistance on Glump.” Coran brought up an image of a planet covered in large sections of desert with a few patches of forest. “Apparently the Galra are showing interest in some of the oases that sustain the planet’s ecosystem that relies on this water.”

Allura nodded. “The Galra that are there seem to be a small scouting party at the moment. If we can help them with this we can get the Glutioons to join the coalition. Pidge, Hunk, you two will go down and eliminate the Galra threat. Send a clear message that Glump is protected by Voltron.”

“Sure thing.” Said Hunk.

“Let us know if you have any trouble.” Said Allura.

So Hunk and Pidge ended up traveling to the planet Glump. The mission seemed to be simple enough. Pidge scooped out that it was a small group of Galra standing around the base of a natural dam. They quickly formulated a plan; head down, beat up the Galra, and if needed, use the Lions to stop the dam from bursting.

The plan was good and Hunk was more than happy to do this. They just did one more quick sweep of the area to make sure they had as much information as possible before they attacked. Pidge gasped.

_“Oh my god, Hunk! Look! It’s Sendak!”_

“Wait what? Are you sure?”

 _“I’m damn sure!”_ On screen appeared an image of Sendak, but he looked much more like a cyborg now. _“Looks like he didn’t die when Shiro accidentally launched him out and blew him up.”_

Hunk nodded in agreement. “Still can’t believe he survived that and… is that a Kugutsu?” The two of them groaned in annoyance when they saw the Kugutsu standing next to him. He didn’t seem as bulky as the rest of the Kugutsu they had seen in the past. They were a lot more built like Shiro and were hard as nails to take down. Every time one of those was involved someone ended up in a healing pod. Thankfully they were few and far between.

 _“Perfect…”_ Muttered Pidge. _“Well, this one looks a little thinner, so who knows? Maybe this guy is faster than the others?”_

“Perfect. Just what we need. A fast Kugutsu…” Muttered Hunk. “They were already fast enough. What now?”

_“I’ll come in on foot and you distract them.”_

“You sure there Pidge?”

_“Yeah, they will be too distracted by the Yellow Lion to bother seeing me run around and breaking their shit.”_

“Okay. Good luck Pidge.” Hunk watched as Pidge zipped through the clouds and rolled around the other side of the dam. None of the Galra seemed to notice so Hunk waited in the clouds for Pidge to give him the go ahead to cause a distraction.

***

Pidge very carefully snuck around the dam and observed the Galra. They looked like they were constructing a pipe to drain the water away from the dam. She was very quiet and managed to observe this new Kugutsu. They stayed close to Sendak. They were skinnier than the previous ones they had come across and their design was a little different too. Maybe they were making different types? She really hoped not.

Pidge slipped behind some large rocks as she looked at the equipment the Galra had set up. She was going to go and set up a small explosive to wreck everything and stop them from tapping into it. She just needed to figure out where to put it and where the best place to put it to make sure she didn’t blow the hole in the dam.

“Okay Hunk.” She said quietly. “I need a distraction.”

 _“Got it.”_ Said Hunk. Seconds later Hunk barreled out of the clouds and shot a few lasers at the Galra, but at a safe distance. It immediately threw the Galra into a panic as they quickly got into their own fighters to counter Hunk.

As they were distracted, Pidge quickly slinked over to the equipment and started to place her explosives. She was about to place the last one when she got spotted by Sendak. “Kugutsu! Take them out!”

In a split second there was a shadow standing over Pidge. Before she could look up the Kugutsu grabbed her by the back of her collar and flung her away from the equipment. She dropped the last explosive as she was thrown and landed several feet away from it. Pidge scrambled to her feet and took her bayard out.

The Kugutsu just stood there and stared at her. Pidge would have thought he was just a robot if she couldn’t see his chest moving as he was breathing. She felt sorry for whatever poor soul was trapped inside it, but were they even living inside it anymore? 

It lunged at her and Pidge quickly ducked out of the way, but she still felt its arm scraping against the side of her helmet. She quickly swung around and launched her bayard at the Kugutsu. It wrapped around them and she shocked them. The Kugutsu jolted and twitched but it made no sound to show it was in pain. It was extremely unnerving.

It grabbed hold of the cord, still twitching, and managed to pull it off. The grapple part of the blade scraped across the breast plate, leaving a rather impressive mark. After a few seconds they recovered and took a gun out of their holster and pointed it at them. Pidge gulped and quickly jumped out of the way, trying to find cover as Galra fighters started falling from the sky thanks to Hunk.

“Shit!” She hissed. “Shit, shit, shit, fuck!” Pidge jumped out of the way as the Kugutsu shot at her again. She looked over her shoulder just in time to see the Kugutsu crouching down, like it was about to sprint at her, which it was. “Fuck!” Pidge quickly jumped behind a rock just as she felt a rush of air blast past her.

 _“You doing okay down there Pidge?”_ Asked Hunk through the intercoms.

“That skinny Kugutsu? Yeah, they are fast and somewhat electric proof.”

 _“A crap. Do you- Oh shit!”_ Yelped Hunk. Pidge looked up in time to see the Yellow Lion doing a barrel roll, but still getting hit. _“Ow, okay. Ouch. Not doing too hot up here. I radioed Coran the situation. We should bet getting back up real soon.”_

“Thanks. I appreciate it.” 

Pidge quickly jumped over the side of the rock and put her shield up as the Kugutsu continued to shoot at her. She wasn’t too sure how much longer she was going to be able to hold out against this one. 

The Kugutsu quickly boosted forward again and tackled her to the ground. Pidge laid there, stunned and prone on the ground with the Kugutsu standing over her with a gun pointed at her head. They were about to pull the trigger when they heard an explosion. The two of them looked up just in time to see a Galra fighter quickly spiraling out of the air, and right into the side of the dam.

There was a rumble and several rocks fell from the dam, raining right down on top of them. Pidge gasped in horror at the thought of being buried alive. The Kugutsu suddenly grabbed hold of the front of her breastplate and used their boost to get a safe distance away from the danger zone.

Pidge sat on the dirt in shock as the Kugutsu looked back at the avalanche, followed by a small gush of water from a crack that formed. “You… You saved me?” She questioned.

The Kugutsu looked back down at her. They then looked between Pidge and the gun that was still in their hand a few times before they put it away. They brushed some dirt off their shoulder and started walking back to Sendak who had made his way to his own ship. 

This whole interaction confused the heck out of Pidge as she watched Sendak and the Kugutsu fly away. They saved her. It could have just let her get crushed but it didn’t? Maybe whatever process the Galra were using to create these things still wasn’t very good? Maybe all people trapped inside the Kugutsu weren’t completely lost causes? She’d need to look into that.

 _“You doing okay down there Pidge?”_ Asked Hunk as he landed the Yellow Lion near her.

“Yeah…” She said. “We need to try and fix the hole in the dam though.”

_“Got it. Everyone should be here in a few ticks. Are you going to get Green?”_

“Um, yeah. I’m going to do that…” Pidge brushed herself off and quickly went to get Green. She still couldn’t believe a Kugutsu had saved her, but stranger things had happened.

***

The first thing Lance noticed was that he felt… Wet. He slowly opened his eyes and tried to move, but his limbs felt heavy. He was in some kind of tube filled with a transparent purple liquid. His vital signs and other important information was displayed on the tube. He looked down at his body. 

The Galra seemed to have the decency of giving him some kind of underwear while the rest of his body had bandages and needles sticking out of him. They were pumping some kind of yellow liquid into his body. His arms still felt too heavy to move. The liquid he was in felt kind of heavy, like gel. Too thick to be water but too thin to be solid.

Some Galra would walk by, they seemed to be doctors of some sort. They weren’t the druids. One of them looked up at him, specifically their vital signs. They jotted down some stuff down on their notepad and walked off.

Lance blinked a few times as he tried to focus beyond the few feet in front of his tube. His mind was foggy, but he couldn’t form much in the way of thoughts. He couldn’t even really remember what he was doing before he ended up in the tube. What shocked him the most was that he didn’t really care that much. His back was sore and he just felt tired. He slowly let his eyes sink closed.

He was acutely aware of the pain in his back now. It was a dull throbbing that started at the base of his skull and ran down to his tailbone. It felt like a painful jolt every few seconds. It made him feel sick but there wasn’t anything for him to throw up.

“He isn’t as submissive as I thought he would be.” Grumbled a deep voice. “It didn’t even follow orders. It just knocked the Green Paladin to the ground and walked away.”

Lance slowly opened his eyes and saw Sendak and Haggar looking at him. He should have reacted, but he felt nothing. He just slowly blinked at them while they seemed to ignore his conscious state.

“I told you that there would be several kinks that need to be worked out.” Said Haggar quietly. “He is different from the clones. He actually has memories we need to suppress. It works a lot better when they have minimal control compared to no control like the clones. We’ll up the level of suppression by 20%. That should make it easier for him to follow orders and less likely to deviate and interpret orders given to him.”

“Good.” Said Sendak. “Can’t have my Kugutsu running off on his own now, can I?”

“Yes… Still, not too bad considering that was the first field test with this Kugutsu.”

Whatever else they said sounded muffled to Lance as he closed his eyes again. He was tired. What Kugutsu was Sendak talking about? Was it him? He wasn’t a Kugutsu, right? He was pretty sure he might remember being something like that. Whatever. He was tired. He’d figure it out after he’d slept a bit longer and was out of the tube.


	24. Trundling along

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And things continue on... Kudos and comment when you can. Enjoy :D

Things had been very weird for Keith since he had left for the Blade. It all started when he extracted Krolia from the Galra base she was currently on, found out that she was his mother, then they ended up on a freaking space whale because there was a part two to their mission, and now he was stuck on a space whale with her and a cosmic wolf.

Being stuck in the quantum abyss for what felt like months was pretty depressing, but it had brought him and Krolia closer together. He figured out how she and his father met and why she left them. It was all very emotional and kind of heartbreaking, but Keith was grateful to finally know this part of himself and who he was.

Though, with this absence he couldn’t help but think about Voltron and the rest of the Paladin’s. He wondered what they were doing and if Lance and Allura were dating yet. That thought really, really hurt, but if they were happy together, then who was he to stand in their way? He knew that time was moving faster around the dark stars because time was literally collapsing around them.

He knew time was moving slower for everyone else, but he still kind of assumed that Lance and Allura would be together by now. Allura would have been a fool if she turned him down. He was amazing. Even back at the Garrison Keith noticed him. That gangly, squeaky voiced kid that was salty about being a cargo pilot. He thought that he was kind of cute, but when he found out he really hated those in the pilot programs he didn’t bother talking to him. If Lance didn’t like people in the pilot program he wouldn’t like him.

The cosmic wolf happily walked over to him and rested his chin on his lap, wagging his tail. Keith smiled at him and patted his head. The cosmic wolf had grown up quite a fair bit since he and Krolia found and rescued them.

“Hey buddy. Are you worried about me?” He asked.

Krolia cleared her throat. “Well, you have been staring into the fire for quite a while. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Just thinking about Lance again.” He said quietly.

“Ah, your crush.” She said with a smile. “I’m sure he will come around eventually.”

“Yeah? Did you get a vision?”

“No. Not this time. Call it a mother’s intuition. That’s all.” She removed a piece of meat from the grill they had set up over the fire. “When Galra fall in love, we fall deeply in love. In love to the point where some might consider us mad. A bond between lovers is only rivaled by the maternal bond between a mother and her kits.”

Keith nodded and got himself some meat and gave a piece to the cosmic wolf. They happily ate it and went back to gnawing on a bone. He was thankful that he had Krolia and his space wolf to keep him company out here. Sure he spent a year alone in the desert back on earth, but even then he was able to go to town to get groceries. That was it.

“Krolia, even if I do like him it doesn’t matter. Lance is in love with Allura. He’s said so many times. So it’s not like he will want me… But that’s okay. It’s just a crush. I’ll get over it.” He sighed and looked up at the stars. “I’m just happy that he is happy.”

“Love is an extremely intense emotion.” Said Krolia as she picked some meat out of her teeth. “Possibly the driving force of the universe. It can make you do all kinds of things both good and evil. Hopefully one day in the future you will be able to find the person you are meant to give that love to. I’m sure you will find them.”

“Yeah… Maybe someday…” Suddenly the space wolf grabbed the meat out of Keith’s hands and teleported away. “Hey! … Ah, keep it…” Keith grabbed another piece of meat. Hopefully this mission would be over soon and he would be able to see everyone again. It might be a few months to them, but for Keith it was years.

***

Today it was Allura’s turn to bring Lotor his food. He was still trying to convince them that he wasn’t a threat. “How long must you keep me here. Surely you must see that I am no longer a threat to you or Voltron. Can’t you see that I wish to rid the universe of Zarkon’s rule?”

“While you do seem to want to help, we cannot trust you yet.” Said Allura calmly. “Besides, staying here is safer than the alternative. Kolivan wishes to take custody of you and interrogate you for information.”

“Ah… I can see how that is probably not the best solution to this problem…” He muttered. Lotor sighed and took a seat on the ground to eat his food. “Speaking of problems and what not, but I have noticed that you aren’t being shadowed by your usual Blue Paladin friend…”

Lotor quickly noticed that there was something off with Allura when he said that. “There has been an incident and Lance has been captured.”

That kind of surprised the Galra prince. He would have thought that Pidge might have been captured because they were kind of small and easier to move around. But Lance? That was strange. He wasn’t sure why Lance got taken, but one thing was clear, there was no Red Paladin.

“Allura, I am sorry for your loss and I hope that you do recover Lance, but I must ask, what about Voltron? Who is the new Red Paladin?”

“We are sorting that out.” She said calmly. “Keith will be in contact with us when he comes back after he has finished his mission with the Blade.”

“And until then Voltron is unable to form.” Said Lotor. He quietly thought about this for a moment. “How do the Lions even choose their Paladins? Perhaps the Red Lion might choose me? I mean, it feels like destiny that I am here after all.”

Allura shook her head. “Not a chance. There is no way we would let you inside any of the Lions.”

“It was only a suggestion.” Lotor poked at his food and ate a spoonful of the green goo. “If you don’t mind I would like to make a request?”

“What kind of request?”

“I wouldn’t mind eating a meal or two with someone.” Said Lotor. “I know it’s not something I should ask, I’m probably asking too much, but eating is such a social activity. I miss the closeness and chatter. But if that is too much to ask at the moment I understand.”

Allura seemed surprised by the request. “Oh, really? Um… I’ll see what I can do… I’ll come by later to get the tray.”

Lotor nodded and watched Allura go. He sighed a little and continued to eat. He still hadn’t had an opportunity to weasel his way out of his cell but maybe he could use this as an opportunity somehow? He wasn’t sure. Maybe he could convince the Red Lion to pilot them instead of Keith? That would be interesting. The thought almost made him chuckle. He could only imagine how pissed off Zarkon would be if he ended up being a Paladin. 

It would make his own plans a lot easier if he had a Lion. He wouldn’t have to bother making his own creation out of those comets. That being said, he did wonder what had happened to Lance in the first place. Haggar was a wretched monster and he had no doubt that Lance was suffering wherever he was.

He could have been thrown in a cell somewhere or even thrown into a Gladiatorial arena for amusement of the others. That would have been seen as a huge moral boost for the Galra to display one of the Paladin’s under their mercy. Then again if they did that then the Paladin’s and the rebels would know where to look for him. 

Lotor was mildly indifferent to the situation. He felt nothing for Lance apart from suspicion, since he seemed to know way more than he should know… And the way he would glare at him was extremely unnerving. But having Voltron was important to his plan if he couldn’t get his hands on the now unoccupied Red Lion. Still, he needed to figure out how to get out of his cell to even do anything. He really needed to gain Allura’s trust. He’d been stuck in this cell for far too long.

***

Lance slowly blinked his eyes. He felt like he was having an out of body experience. Looking around he realized he was in a cell. Small, dark, cramped, but there was just enough room for a bed and a toilet. Lance sighed but felt too tired to get up. His whole body felt sore. Like he had run a marathon non stop for weeks.

He couldn’t be bothered to sit up because of just how sore and tired he was. Lance was kind of reminded of when he was in his deepest bouts of depression. He’d just lie in bed in that Olkari hospital while he waited for the day to end. During those times the only thing that really made him happy was his visitors. 

He smiled a little as he remembered Keith. The older man just sitting by him, still not very sociable, but able to make him feel happy just by being there for him. Always reliable and there for him until he wasn’t. He still didn’t understand why Keith didn’t want to stick around. But that was kind of Keith apparently. 

He always seemed to run away from things, but he just assumed that was when he was younger. Whenever things got too difficult for Keith he had run away. Just like before when the Shiro clone appeared and he left for the Blade. At the time he had said that Keith was running away. Keith was always running away.

He hadn’t really thought about it much, too upset about being abandoned by Keith when he was back on earth, but was Keith trying to run away from him? That thought upset him. Did Keith just have enough of him? It made him feel sick to think that Keith couldn’t just talk to him. Keith had run away again.

As thought more about it Lance did wonder if there was more things going on than just Keith getting sick of him. He didn’t delve too deeply into it because he didn’t want to think about it anymore. Also, he kind of felt like throwing up anyway. He knew he needed to figure out how to escape, but he was just so tired.

***

Ever since Pidge’s fight with the Kugutsu that saved her life, she had been looking into the differences in different Kugutsu designs. She had seen the Kugutsu that saved her a few times. She knew it was them because their breast plate was still scratched up along with their smaller stature too.

It was mostly from security footage from other bases whenever Sendak was around. It was clear that they were Sendak’s property and whenever Sendak was around that Kugutsu was there. They stayed more in the shadows now and didn’t directly interact with them. 

Those interactions were whatever, but she got a much better idea of who they were from the footage. It was hard to tell if Sendak was hitting the Kugutsu because he was venting his own frustrations or if the Kugutsu was messing up his orders.

She came to the conclusion that the Galra had changed up how they had integrated the pilot into the Kugutsu. They had to be doing something to their brain. Like what the Altean’s in that other universe had done. She wondered what was happening in the head of that Kugutsu and if there was a way to break through to them.

She had roped Hunk into helping her, which he happily did. Hunk said working on other things helped clear his head, which was good. If they weren’t focusing on finding Lance they were fighting the Galra and waiting for Keith to call back.

“Maybe the brain spike things are smaller or thinner?” Suggested Hunk. “Just look at the way he is moving. They look like they are more… Flexible? Is that the right word?”

“Yeah, looks that way.” Muttered Pidge. “I guess they have refined the technology? I mean, the Kugutsu looks less bulky than the ones we have seen on previous ones. But those ones were bigger.”

Hunk nodded in agreement. “Yeah… Maybe they are different species or something? Different Kugutsu for different aliens?”

“Possibly…” Pidge played some footage where the Kugutsu was walking with Sendak. With lightning fast reflexes they put some Galra grunt in an armlock when they rushed past Sendak. But then a few seconds later it didn’t even attempt to move when Sendak hit it so hard it slammed against the floor.

“... Think it’s like his Kugutsu?” Asked Hunk. “Like, we’ve only seen them around generals and higher ranking guys, right? So that one is his.”

Pidge nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that’s probably it… I think with the newer ones we might be able to save them.”

“Save them?”

“Yeah, like, this one doesn’t seem like it’s the same as the others.” Said Pidge. “It saved me when it could have killed me but it didn’t… I feel like it was reaching out to me either consciously or subconsciously.”

“Are you sure we can save them?” Asked Hunk.

“I don’t know…” Said Pidge quietly. “But I am going to try. I sent the information I have to my dad and Ryner. I wanted to get their opinion. Maybe Slav will have an opinion on the matter? Even if it’s to talk about how this is going to cause a blackhole that will destroy the known universe…”

Hunk chuckled. “Yeah, probably… Hey, in all that stuff, have you found any information on Lance?”

Pidge frowned and shook her head. “No… Still nothing about him.”

Hunk nodded and looked back at the photo compilation of the Kugutsu. Both the newer model and the older one. He was sketching what he could and layering the clearer images of the newer model to see the differences between them. 

He still seemed troubled by the fact that there was no news about Lance. Pidge was troubled by that too. Despite everything, she was still pretty sure that Lance was still alive because if he was dead, she was sure that Zarkon would have made a spectacle of it. They had to find him.


End file.
